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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Teams Look For Calif. Rebound
For most of the teams in the Daytona 500, it’s time to put the crushing disappointment in the rear-view mirror. And sometimes that’s easier said than done....
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 18, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Ryan Newman during practice and the preliminary races suffered one motor failure and wrecked twice, neither crash being the result of his own mistakes. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

While Matt Kenseth, Jack Roush & Co. left Daytona International Speedway on a well-earned high note after winning the Daytona 500, for most of the other 42 teams in that race, it’s time to put the crushing disappointment of the 500 in the rear-view mirror. And sometimes that’s easier said than done.

Take Ryan Newman, for example. In his first appearance with Stewart-Haas Racing, the Indiana native had fast cars throughout Daytona Speedweeks. But during practice and the preliminary races, he suffered one motor failure and wrecked twice, neither crash being the result of his own mistakes. In the Daytona 500, a loose wheel dropped him off the pace and he finished 36th.

Likewise, Kyle Busch had one of the fastest cars at Speedweeks, winning his Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race and leading 88 of the first 123 laps of the Daytona 500, before Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers crashed, collecting Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and seven others in the process. Busch’s car was too damaged to continue, so instead of winning, he ended his day way back in 41st.

Earnhardt himself had a character-building day. Not only was he at the center of the day’s biggest wreck, he committed two uncharacteristic blunders on pit road that cost him dearly, as he survived the Vickers crash but finished 27th.

“We had a lot of stuff happen down there in Daytona,” said Earnhardt’s crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., “But I’m pretty excited with how the car ran. The team had some pretty good pit stops. Overall, it was a really good weekend running-wise. There were no results to come along with it so we were disappointed about that. I was pretty excited with how the car ran. We’ll put those weekends behind us and move on.”

Newman, Busch, Earnhardt, and many others who had disappointing experiences in Daytona, will be looking to rebound this weekend in Southern California, site of Sunday night’s Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway. And that’s one of the key characteristics about the long, grinding NASCAR season: No matter how bad — or how good — you were the previous week, there’s almost always another race right around the corner, and with that next race, a chance for redemption.



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