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Junior Sets the Pace for ‘08

by Tim Zaegel on February 10th, 2008

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season officially got underway with the drop of the green flag Saturday night for the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Finally, after months of talking about whether or not Dale Earnhardt Jr would find success driving for Hendrick Motorsports. All the debate about if the Toyotas would be able to compete with the competition after adding Joe Gibbs Racing to the mix. And, all the doubts about the Car of Tomorrow being able to handle the monster speedway that is Daytona. Many question marks still linger, no doubt about it, but Saturday night’s Shootout gave us a small glimpse of what we might be able to expect in the highly anticipated 2008 NASCAR season, and the excitement level has raised to a whole new level as we gear up for the 50th running of the Daytona 500.

After an absolutely catastrophic weekend of practice heading into the Budweiser Shootout, the race itself actually had somewhat of a calm atmosphere to it. I spent the entire race just waiting to see if Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch would continue their Daytona feud and get into each other. I waited to see some of the guys that had to turn to backup cars completely lose the handling of their race cars. And, I waited to see if one of the Shootout virgins would make a bold move to get out front and cause a pileup behind him in the process. None of that happened. In fact, the only accident that occurred during the race as a result of actual contact between cars was when Jamie McMurray got into Denny Hamlin with 46 laps left on the ticker. Everything else that happened was the result of cut tires by Bill Elliot and David Gilliland.

So, now that you know what we didn’t see, here’s what did happen. The Toyotas of Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Dave Blaney looked very strong throughout the race, and even Michael Waltrip’s car early on. In fact, the only cars that ever looked like they may be faster than the trio of Camri’s were the cars belonging to Rick Hendrick, who had all four of his teams in the race. With 38 laps to go, the restrictor plate duo of Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr finally hooked up and took control of the race. Earnhardt had actually been up at the front of the pack since he led his first lap in a Hendrick car back on lap 6, but Stewart had to work his way up all the way from the back where started the race as a result of Friday’s incident with Kurt Busch, and it took him quite some time to work his way to the front of the field. Meanwhile, Junior’s new teammates – Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson – had lagged toward the back of the field all night long. After being collected up in the big accident that took place during the practice runs, both drivers had to turn to backup cars to run in the Shootout. The problem was that their backup cars were actually cars that were used to run at Darlington and Richmond in 2007. After making significant changes to the car at the end of the first race session and during the first caution in the second session, though, the numbers 24 and 48 quickly started moving toward the front.

With 32 laps left - just six laps after Stewart and Junior initially hooked up – Gordon and Johnson caught up to the two race leaders and Junior pulled away from Stewart to run with his new teammates. Dave Blaney and Reed Sorenson fell in line behind Stewart, and we spent the next several laps watching Smoke try and lead a charge to pass the Hendrick dynasty, which he finally did.

After a late-race caution, the green flag dropped once more and it was a shootout to the end with only a few laps remaining. Junior and Stewart ran neck and neck with Johnson pushing the 88 car and Gordon pushing the 20. When Gordon pulled to the middle of the track and started to drop back in the field, Junior appeared to have the advantage over Stewart, who was now being pushed by Denny Hamlin … and, it stayed that way as Junior brought home the checkered flag – leading a record 47 of the 70 laps - and Stewart came home in second. Though there were no points involved and it won’t go down as an “official” race win for Earnhardt, he gave Junior Nation plenty to rejoice about and plenty to hope for in 2008.

Race Results (from nascar.com):

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