It should be one of the most intriguing Daytona 500s in years on Sunday as the Great American Race kicks off the 2011 NASCAR season.
Kurt Busch is on the pole thanks to original polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecking his car in a practice session on Wednesday. Busch is one of the second favorites on Bodog with Junior at 9/1. Earnhardt is officially still listed on the pole but will start the race in his backup car at the tail end of the pack. Busch won last Saturday’s Shootout and then Thursday’s first Gatorade Duel. While five drivers have won the Shootout and 500 in the same year, no driver has won those two and a Duel race in the same year. And Busch has never won a points race at a restrictor plate track (i.e. Daytona and Talladega).
Kevin Harvick is the 8/1 favorite on Bodog. Harvick, who scored more points last year than any other driver over the course of the 36-race season but finished third in the Chase behind Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin, is the top restrictor plate driver in NASCAR today. (Carburetor restrictor plates are used at Daytona and Talladega — the two biggest tracks on the NASCAR schedule — to reduce airflow to the engine, thus limiting horsepower and reducing speed.) He won two of the four plate races last season and he took the checkered flag in the 2007 Daytona 500 and led the most laps last year before being passed two laps from the finish by Jamie McMurray and finishing seventh.
“I feel like I’ve really grown and matured as a restrictor plate racer,” Harvick said. “It’s something that takes time to learn. But I’ve got confidence now that I can win every time we go to a plate track. And it’s almost been important at RCR [Richard Childress Racing] to run well on the plate tracks. It’s a priority for Richard.”
Harvick hasn’t finished outside the top 10 at Daytona since the 2009 Coke Zero 400. His average finish is 3.6 in his last five Daytona starts.
The newly repaved track at Daytona has led to much faster speeds and is causing driver to bunch in two-car packs to help with drafting off each other. Thus the field should be very bunched for the entire race, leading to the potential of major wrecks. We saw what could happen Thursday when Hamlin crashed after he and drafting partner Kyle Busch came rushing up on the pack of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle.
Hamlin (14/1) came close to winning his second Bud Shootout on Saturday night, and notching his third victory at Daytona. But he was forced below the double-yellow line at the finish, relegating him to 12th place. The Joe Gibbs Racing cars were near the front of the field through Saturday night. If Kyle Busch had avoided an accident, it might have been JGR teammates pushing each other to victory. Hamlin didn’t score a top-10 at Daytona in 2010. But in his last seven races at the track, he scored two top-fives.
Here is the full lineup, with car number in parentheses:
1. (88) x-Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 186.089.
2. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 185.966.
3. (22) Kurt Busch, Dodge, 184.896.
4. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 185.071.
5. (78) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 183.681.
6. (33) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 185.223.
7. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 184.74.
8. (15) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 183.966.
9. (17) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 184.102.
10. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 183.595.
11. (4) Kasey Kahne, Toyota, 183.602.
12. (92) Brian Keselowski, Dodge, 177.581.
13. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 184.763.
14. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 183.685.
15. (43) A J Allmendinger, Ford, 184.29.
16. (2) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 184.008.
17. (5) Mark Martin, Chevrolet, 184.991.
18. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 181.316.
19. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 185.422.
20. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 183.456.
21. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 185.002.
22. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 184.475.
23. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 184.687.
24. (00) David Reutimann, Toyota, 184.019.
25. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 184.911.
26. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 184.911.
27. (83) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 183.557.
28. (37) Robert Richardson Jr., Ford, 181.466.
29. (09) Bill Elliott, Chevrolet, 184.532.
30. (7) Robby Gordon, Dodge, 182.12.
31. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 183.576.
32. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 185.445.
33. (46) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 180.977.
34. (6) David Ragan, Ford, 184.612.
35. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 184.748.
36. (77) Steve Wallace, Toyota, 182.574.
37. (71) Andy Lally, Chevrolet, 180.828.
38. (20) Joey Logano, Toyota, 183.206.
39. (34) David Gilliland, Ford, 182.697.
40. (38) Travis Kvapil, Ford, 184.271.
41. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 184.222.
42. (36) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 183.793.
43. (32) Terry Labonte, Ford, Past Champion.
x-Earnhardt will start from position 43, after wrecking his primary race car in practice.
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