DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —— Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent most of the daywrestling an ill-handling car, more concerned with keeping it offthe wall than trying to win a second straight Daytona 500.
Even so, his rivals kept glancing nervously in their rearviewmirrors, figuring Junior would show up sooner or later.
They were right.
Coming from as far back as 30th, Earnhardt sent the massivecrowd into a frenzy when he surged to the lead late in Sunday’srace.
At the end, he couldn’t hold off Jeff Gordon, who stormed pastthe No. 8 car and held on for his third Daytona 500 victory.Earnhardt settled for third —— a couple of car lengths short of aDaytona Double, but OK with the outcome.
“I’m not too disappointed,” he said, having missed a chance tobecome the fourth back-to-back 500 winner. “I know I can’t win themall.”
That Earnhardt even had a chance to win was a testament to thedogged perseverance he inherited from his father, a seven-timeNASCAR Cup champion who died at this track in 2001.
“We struggled all day with the car,” Junior said. “We tried toget it to handle, but it wouldn’t turn. We were terrible.”
But Earnhardt remained patient and his new crew kept working onthe No. 8 car, finally working out the problems with some minortweaking to the chassis set-up and a new set of tires.
“They did exactly what I needed,” he said. “I had one of thebest cars out there at the end of the race.”
Suddenly, Earnhardt was a force to be reckoned with, roaringpast all those cars in front of him. Up ahead, Gordon wonderedwhere Junior had been all day.
“When the cautions came out, I would look in my mirror or lookon the board to see how far back he was,” Gordon said. “I thoughtmaybe Junior was having engine problems or handling problems. Thenhe flipped a switch there at the end. I was like, ‘Oh, here heis.'”
Earnhardt took his first lead of the race just five laps fromthe scheduled finish, slipping by Tony Stewart.
Stewart reclaimed the top spot on the next lap, then Earnhardtgot by him again. With another victory in sight, Junior couldn’tkeep his car in front. Gordon found a burst of speed going down thelong backstretch, clearing Earnhardt as they barreled into turnthree.
Even though a late caution added three laps to the scheduled200-lap distance, Junior never made another serious challenge forthe lead. In fact, he couldn’t hold off Kurt Busch for therunner-up spot.
Busch a solid 2nd
Busch ran his kind of race: near the front, out of trouble andbarely noticed. He’s got this down pat.
Busch, the defending Nextel Cup champion, mimicked his run tothe 2004 title in Sunday’s race. While he never led a lap, he wasright in the middle of the frantic finish.
“That’s what you live for,” said Busch, who settled for second.”That’s what keeps me coming back every race, is to be able to havean opportunity to go for the win on the last lap and steal itaway.”
Busch, also the runner-up to Michael Waltrip at the 500 twoyears ago, won his first series championship in 2004.
Labonte out early
Bobby Labonte left Daytona earlier than ever. He had engineproblems about a dozen laps into the race, finished last in the43-car field and took home another bad memory from the sport’sbiggest race.
“It’s just one of those things. There’s nothing you can do aboutit,” said Labonte, who is now 0-for-13 in the Daytona 500.”Obviously, this isn’t the way you want to start the season.”
No, but then again, Labonte should be accustomed to this by now.NASCAR’s 2000 champion wrecked three years in a row in the Daytona500 before finishing 11th a year ago.
Star watch
As always, the Daytona 500 had plenty of star power.
Former Miss America Vanessa Williams sang the national anthem,actor Matthew McConaughey uttered the famous words “Gentlemen,start your engines,” and actor Ashton Kutcher waved the green flagto start the race.
Several others also were on hand, including country music singerClint Black, Boston Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon, Atlanta Bravesthird baseman Chipper Jones, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback ByronLeftwich, Detroit Tigers catcher Pudge Rodriguez, LPGA Tour starAnnika Sorenstam and former Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson.
But the only standing ovation during the drivers’ meeting, wheremany of the luminaries were introduced, was for former prisoner ofwar Jessica Lynch.
Lynch became one of the most visible faces of the war when shewas rescued from an Iraqi hospital on April 1, 2003. She was oncrutches, still recovering from injuries sustained when her Humveecrashed during a firefight.
