Ryan Newman drove a smart race and pulled off a win in the most prestigious stock car race of the year--the Daytona 500. Add to that the fact that his team owner, Roger Penske, had never had a restrictor-plate race win at all, and Kurt Busch, Ryan's teammate finished second in the 50th running of the Great American Race.....well, for the Dodge fans things could not be much better.
Except, perhaps, that Roger Penske showed up in Victory Lane in a Hendrick motor sports hat. What was that all about??? You'd think Penske would be proud of his own outfit and finally winning not only a restrictor-plate race, but a DAYTONA 500 -- not promoting Rick Hendrick racing. Yeah, yeah, yeah....I heard him say he said something to Rick Hendrick and Hendrick gave him the hat. Still, it was not very flattering to his own teams.
Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart ran smart races; Busch easily had the strongest car of the day, even if it was a Toyota. Ah, well. Kyle has shown maturity and the ability to work as a teammate. Gibbs Racing has three top-notch racers under their roof. Look to them for bringing Toyota the success that Michael Waltrip could not produce last season. I'm still not a Toyota fan, but they are the lesser of some evils out there...
Most interestingly, the best laid plans of Hendrick racing didn't end up with their three top teams in the top 5. Guess you just can't buy everything....
