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Feb 14, 2000
Daytona 500 observations, Bud Shootout, Speedweeks, and do we have a Yates domination? Mark Martin has a bad break.
Daytona 500....... Observations
It looks like the off-season news we were getting about the Fords being hot was true. They swept the first three positions in qualifying. The interesting aspect to me about the top five qualifiers, is the No. 4 ranking for Mike Skinner . Mike was the highest ranking Chevy driver, in a Larry McReynolds prepared racecar. His teammate, Dale Earnhardt Sr. , ended up with a paltry 17th position. Apparently, his car wasn't prepared as well. I don't think any of us have any doubts that Dale will make his way to the front of the pack when the Great American Race gets under way. It's apparent the Richard Childress teams have strong racecars, and if they can manage to hook up in the draft better than they did last year, they'll be a force to be reckoned with. This is where egos create good racing. Last year, neither teammate wanted to be racing behind the other in the draft. They both thought they should be first. "I don't want to follow him, I want someone to get behind me!" There's a lot of humor in the "dog eat dog" approach that a lot of drivers have about drafting. "Get behind me, and we'll go to the front!" Toward the end of the race, the ego's have taken a beating, and the drivers would line up behind the devil himself, if they thought he would get them a shot at the win. In the last twenty laps, the survivors will take advantage of what they've learned during the afternoon, and do their best to capitalize on it. In order to get to be a survivor at the end of the race, the drivers have to carefully calculate their pit stops. Pitting alone at Daytona is disastrous. In order to be competitive, they have to have drafting partners leaving the pits. A lone car at Daytona can't possibly reach the speed of 5 or 6 cars drafting together, and it's equally difficult to join a pack of cars when you're running alone. Lone cars tend to lose the draft while trying to get up the drafting speed of the pack they are trying to join. You've got to have a partner out there, and the big question is "who?" Who can they trust, and how much can they trust them?
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