Wild, Wooley, Wierd Daytona 500 By-Don Hamm Check out ALL our sections and features here!! There is plenty to keep you busy on our main page! Well, so much for fearless predictions. I predicted a DEI sweep of Daytona and totally missed it. Junior and Kenny both had major problems and were never a factor after Junior's blown tires and Kenny getting caught up in "The Big One". It seems no one predicted Ward Burton and it was a pleasant surprise to see him in victory lane. Another pleasant surprise was to see Geoff Bodine finishing third. A very nice pay day for a driver everyone had written off. Near the end of the race it appeared that the Silver Bullet of Sterling Marlin had the car to beat along with Jeff Gordon. What was Sterling thinking, that he could get out of his car and pull the fender off his right front tire under the red flag? Who would have predicted one of the race favorites, Tony Stewart, would lose an engine on the second lap. Where did that debris come from that cut Dale, Jr's tire on lap twenty three, essentially eliminating his hopes? There hadn't been any wrecks and I didn't notice anyone tagging the wall. Dale worked his way back up to fourth before he blew a right rear tire that damaged his brakes. Kenny Wallace never seemed to get it together and was never a real factor. Of the three DEI drivers, Mikey Waltrip was the only one left at the end and had what appeared to be a very competitive car. What I couldn't figure out was why about half the field seemed intent on not lining up with Jeff Gordon or Mikey. I can guarantee you that if I didn't have a top qualifying car I would have tagged onto either of these guys and tried to get to the front. It seems like some drivers would cut their noses off to spite their faces by not drafting with two of the best cars in the field. Go figure. I realize every driver wants to win and aren't particularly intent on helping the likes of Gordon or Mikey attain to the win but I, for one, would rather help them get to the front for the win and place second to them than end up, as eighteen cars did, in the Big One. Second or third at Daytona pays better than winning at virtually any other track. It was great to see Ken Schrader running up front again and leading so many laps. The candy car sure looked good for a while. Can anyone out there explain to me why he gave up track position to come back in the pits and top off his fuel? NBC didn't say that his team had a problem getting him full on his previous stop and it simply makes no sense to give up track position to be back in the middle of the back and wait for the Big One to take him out. Instead of finishing up front he ended up finishing twetny sixth. Can anyone tell me what sent Dale Jarrett spinning through the tri-oval grass on the last lap? NBC never did a replay as to the cause of this. Was this another blocking deal? It seems unlikely that Dale suddenly decided to do some agricultural racing. My sentimental favorite, Dave Marcis, had an engine failure on lap eighty and ended his stellar carreer on somewhat of a down note. Thanks for the memories Dave and God speed to you in the future. My pick for Rookie of The Year, Ryan Newman, had a decent seventh place finish while Jimmie Johnson did pretty well by finishing fifteenth. Shawna Robinson didn't set any records but did finish twenty fourth even after her run in with Mike Skinner. We had three Fords in the top five, five in the top ten and ten in the top twenty.. Will they stop crying like spoiled brats now? Buckshot Jones wasn't in the race so who do we blame for the mayhem on the track? First off, I blame NAZICAR. They have the "Below The Yellow Line" rule, also referred to as out of bounds. That's fine if equally and fairly enforced. A new rule that should be implemented and strongly enforced would be a "No Blocking" rule at Daytona and Talladeda with Atalanta a possibility. We lost a huge number of cars today because Kevin Harvick tried to block Jeff Gordon taking himself out of a fine run and causing the "Big One". Then Jeff essentially took himself out of a win by his blocking of Marlin. Last September, Bobby Labonte caused the Big One by his blocking attempt at Talladega. I realize how hard it is to gain back positions if a driver gets shuffled out of the lead draft. Does this warrant the endangerment of other drivers or the destruction of numerous cars? To my way of thinking, that is a very definite NO. I have watched or attended every Daytona 500 since 1979 and have wittnessed some strange, wild, wierd and odd happenings on the track. Today's race was by far wild, wooley and wierd for too many reasons to enumerate here. My conclusion is that we were better off with last years aero rules than we were today. I further believe we'd have seen an entirely different race had NA$CAR upped the restrictor plates by a sixteenth of an inch. We'll never know for the time being. NA$CAR (I$C) has stated they will not reconfigure the tracks at Daytona and Talladega so what will they do to make the racing competitive, safe and exciting? While the race wasn't as boring as many of us anticipated it still wasn't good racing. I would suggest that we run the road course but, of course, this won't work because I$C would loose too much from infield parking. Heaven forbid that I$C did anything that effected their bottom line regardless of how much it costs the teams in destroyed cars and, horrors, the loss of another driver. As always, this is my opinions based on my observations as provided by NBC. You have the right to disagree but never to be disagreeable. God bless the USA, President Bush and the victims of 911. Don@insidethepitbox.com Check out ALL our sections and features here!! 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