The Daytona 500 is Here!:

Finally, the long off-season is over as the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season officially kicks off this weekend with the Daytona 500. This restrictor place race is guaranteed to bring high speeds, tight racing and nervous drivers as the close quarters battling can cause a big wreck. The 2006 NASCAR season is ready to roll!

Tickets:

Speedway ticket office 1-800-PITSHOP or (386) 253-7223


The Track:

The fast 2.5 mile tri-oval uses restrictor plates to keep the speeds managable but those plates create fertile ground for The Big One. The plates cause aerodynamics to be more important than horsepower which results in big packs of cars running nose to tail and door to door all day long.

Race Distance:

200 Laps = 500 Miles

The Big Picture:

This is the first points race of the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season. Coming into this race all drivers have zero points.

Storylines:

Bump-drafting will be the talk of the track this week. Many drivers including Tony Stewart complained about the violent bumping during the Budweiser Shootout. NASCAR has posted additional officials in specific "zones" around the track and is prepared to issue penalties to any driver that bumps too hard or in the wrong place.

NASCAR will be forced to use their judgement here and any decision by the officials to penalize a driver will cause controversy.

Media Coverage:

TV: NBC Sunday, February 19th, 1:30PM Eastern.

Radio: MRN and XM Satellite

Actual Race: 2:30 p.m. Eastern

Posted Awards:

$18,029,052

Previously...:

Last year Jeff Gordon won a wild race that contained way too many wrecks. The lead pack was content to follow Tony Stewart most of the day until the final laps so there were very few lead changes and not much going on up front. At the end everything went crazy as the last nine laps featured four lead changes and two wrecks plus a green-white-checkers sprint to the finish.

Predictions:

Restrictor plate races are virtually impossible to predict. Anything can happen and all too often it does.

I'm going to make two very obvious picks to start off the 2006 season.

Tony Stewart's teammate won the Budweiser Shootout and Tony won the last NEXTEL Cup race held in Daytona when he claimed the Pepsi 400 last July. He's got to be the favorite for Sunday.

For my backup I've got to go with Jeff Gordon who won the 2005 Daytona 500 and continued his restrictor-plate domination last season with a win in Talladega. Jeff is fired up for 2006 after missing the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup last season. He's going to make a statement right out of the gate and never look back.