I hear ya.. I think she’s been taken out mostly by young drivers so far.. but if she is in front at the end by a miracle,, I guarantee you none of the old-timers would have a qualm about spinning her for a win.
Lap-by-Lap: Daytona
By NASCAR.COM
February 26, 2012 12:19 PM, EST
http://www.nascar.com/lap-by-lap/120226/day500lbl/index.html
12:17 p.m. ET — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is being interviewed on Fox’s pre-race show. His first time here at Daytona in a 1997 Busch Series race, Junior wound up on his lid going down the backstretch. He ended the year with a blown engine at Homestead, but sandwiched in between the two bad showings was the first of his two series championships.
Noon ET — I promise not to type the words “Rain, rain go away” at all today. No ... wait a second. I just did. I promise not to type them any more!
11:44 a.m. ET — With rain and clouds, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team probably won’t be able to do its fly-over. THAT, my friends, is a bucket-list moment ... to be riding in the back seat of a jet fighter during a pre-race fly-over!
Give me the Navy’s Blue Angels, though. Naval aviation all the way!
11:31 a.m. ET — Don’t count out running this race to completiton just yet, though. The 1979 Daytona 500 — the first 500-mile race broadcast live from start to finish — also faced issues with the weather. But NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr. evidently had “connections.”
“I could hear Mr. France on the radio, and he was over toward Ormond Beach somewhere riding around,” remembered Chip Warren, then a NASCAR official who served as the chief starter for the famous race. “[Former NASCAR employee] Jim Bachoven was over in the opposite direction, and they were talking to each other on the radio.
“Mr. France says, ‘Bachy, I’ve got sunshine over here.’ And Bachy said, ‘Well, I’ve got some sunshine over here, too.’ I’ll never forget ... Mr. France said, ‘You bring your sunshine, I’ll bring mine and I’ll meet you at the tunnel.”
Yep. You guessed it.
“I could see the tunnel from the flagstand, and I remember that Cadillac coming up out of that tunnel,” Warren continued. “It was like the sky just opened up and sun started shining. It just sent cold chills all over me. I thought, ‘Man ... this guy’s got something here.’”
11:28 a.m. ET — I hate to say it ... but it’s raining in Daytona.
7:45 a.m. ET — First, the good news. The Daytona 500 will be run. The bad news? Light rain is in the forecast most of the day, and on radar, a huge wall of green is bearing down on Daytona International Speedway at this very moment.
If history is any indicator, there may still be hope. Not once in the 53 previous editions of this race has it been postponed due to weather. Just four have been shortened because of precipitation — the first time in 1965 with Fred Lorenzen as the winner and most recently just three years ago when the victory went to Matt Kenseth.
7:35 a.m. ET — The lineup for the Daytona 500 was finalized Thursday following the twin 150-mile qualifying races. Duel 1 set the grid for odd-numbered starting positions, and Duel 2 the evens.
Carl Edwards is on the pole, with Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle in second. Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. make up the rest of the top five. Regan Smith, Marcos Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton and Elliott Sadler will roll to the stripe in sixth through tenth.
Former Daytona 500 winners Bill Elliott and Michael Waltrip failed to qualify for this year’s edition of the Great American Race, as did Robert Richardson Jr., Mike Wallace, Kenny Wallace and J.J. Yeley.