2/6/05… With just a handful of days left until the first competition of the season, we need to take a close look at the 2004 pole winners and list the former winners of the pre-season exhibition event who are eligible to compete.

Ryan Newman led the pole sitters last season with nine poles, and surprisingly enough, there was only one repeat at Atlanta, the rest were at different tracks. This season Newman has the new Dodge Charger under the #12 ALLTEL decals, and all of the reports on it have been stellar. Of course, we all know that the proof will be in the pudding when the new Dodge entry takes to the track. Newman led the Cup drivers in DNF's last season with a total of nine events that he did not finish. Even though he was plagued with the bad luck, he still managed to place seventh in championship points. His two wins, 11 top five finishes, and 14 to ten finishes kept him in the hunt. Newman is always to be considered a threat as long as his engine is running!

Four time Cup Champion Jeff Gordon was the second highest pole winner last season with six, and it goes without saying that the veteran driver of the #24 Dupont Chevy is always a threat to win any event he enters. The Hendrick Motorsports teams are coming back with a vengeance this season in tribute to the loss of their associates in the plane crash on route to the fall Martinsville event. I look for Gordon to be more consistent than ever, given their advanced high end technology that should help them in adapting to the new rules better than other teams. Gordon won five events in 2004, and tied Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 16 top five finishes, and also led the series with 25 top ten finishes.

The next highest pole winner was last season's Raybestos Rookie of the Year, Kasey Kahne, with four poles. The new young superstar had 13 top five finishes last year, five of which were second place finishes. He also listed 14 top ten finishes, but was the unhappy recipient of seven DNF's which hurt his championship efforts. Kahne will be behind the wheel of the new #9 Dodge Motorsports sponsored Evernham Motorsport's Dodge Charger.

Jeremy Mayfield, Casey Mears, and Joe Nemechek each had two poles last season, with Mayfield sweeping Dover. Mayfield made the chase last season, but ended up at the end of the spectrum. He too will be driving the new Dodge Charger this season with his #19 on it for Evernham Motorsports. Mears, also in the new #41 Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing, didn't have a good season last year. With only one top five finish and nine top ten finishes, he still managed to show enough promise to retain his job. Nemechek listed a win at Kansas last season along with three to five finishes and nine top ten finishes. He'll be back this year behind the wheel of the #01 U. S. Army sponsored MB2 Motorsports Chevy.

Our 2004 Champion Kurt Busch had one pole win, along with Greg Biffle, Bobby Labonte, Ricky Rudd and Jimmie Johnson. All five of the 2004 single pole winning drivers will be back this season in their old rides, chomping at the bit to make the 2005 chase.

The former event winners who are eligible are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, and Geoff Bodine. All of these drivers have rides this season with the exception of Geoff Bodine. It remains to be seen if he'll be a part of this season's Shootout, but I'm sure a lot of his fans have high hopes of seeing him compete.

2/13/05… The first event of the season is in the books, regardless of it's points status. The teams had a chance to air out their teams and equipment before any serious competition began.

There were only 20 entries starting the event, Terry Labonte did not participate. Out of the 20 entries, there were eight Chevys, five Fords, and seven Dodge Chargers. With eight entries, it wasn't much of a surprise to see the Chevrolet, the winningest model in NASCAR, make it to Victory Circle. The New Dodge Chargers were an untested commodity in actual competition, but two finishes in the top ten is a good sign.

Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag for the season's first outing, and that wasn't much of a surprise either. There's lots of hype out there suggesting that Johnson is the odds on favorite to take this season's championship, but that's just hype. We all know there are a lot of factors involving a championship, although most of us will have to agree that Johnson stands a better chance of making the chase as a lot of the other 43 drivers in the field.

Pushing Johnson for the win and placing second was Ryan Newman in the #12 Dodge Charger. He was followed by; Jeff Gordon, #24 Chevy; Tony Stewart, #20 Chevy; Greg Biffle, #16 Ford; Kurt Busch, #97 Ford; Dale Earnhardt Jr., #8 Chevy, Mark Martin, #6 Ford; Kasey Kahne, #9 Dodge Charger; Bobby Labonte, #18 Chevy. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Dale Jarrett -- #88 -- finished 15th
2. Greg Biffle -- #16 -- finished 5th
3. Bill Elliott -- #39 -- finished 17th
4. Brian Vickers -- #25 -- finished 19th
5. Ken Schrader -- #49 -- finished 16th
6. Kurt Busch -- #97 -- finished 6th
7. Ryan Newman -- #12 -- finished 2nd
8. Tony Stewart -- #20 -- finished 4th
9. Ricky Rudd -- #21 -- finished 12th
10. Jeremy Mayfield -- #19 -- finished 18th

The pole position for the Daytona 500 was won by Dale Jarrett. He has won the 500 three times, and this was his third pole position win. The last time he won (1995) he started from the pole, and is a favorite to do the same this coming Sunday. Jeff Gordon was on the pole for quite a while during the time trials, but when Jarrett beat his time, he got knocked back to the outside pole. His teammate and driver of the car he co-owns with Rick Hendrick, Jimmie Johnson, came along and knocked him back to third place, winning the second place spot and a secured spot in the 2005 Daytona 500 lineup.

Be sure to tune into the FX channel for the Gatorade Duel qualifying events on Thursday, February 17th beginning at 1 pm eastern. These two events (Formerly called the Twin 125's) will set the field for this coming Sunday's Daytona 500.

2/21/05… Jeff Gordon was the man of the hour as it came down to the last lap of the infamous Daytona 500. The four time Cup champion is now a three time Daytona 500 winner. It didn't appear that he had the dominant car throughout the event, but as we all know, it's the driver who leads the last lap that wins, regardless of what kind of race he had previous to that.

Gordon becomes the fifth driver to win more than two Daytona 500's. He shares three wins with Dale Jarrett and Bobby Allison, while Cale Yarborough won four and Richard Petty won seven.

Although we didn't see the "big one" there were lots of altercations and fender benders, along with some tire failures and blown engines, which culminated to the regular racing fare of a new season. The new rules didn't seem to have much of an effect on the car handling, but of course, all of the cars were under the new aero rules, so how could one tell one from the other. It was still good racing, and a welcome sight after the long dry spell we've had this winter.

Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart seemed to have gotten into it on the track, with a lot of bumping and banging. Johnson's teammate (and boss) was heading for the win, and Johnson was doing all he could to keep Stewart from challenging him. As long as Johnson was banging and bumping Stewart, then Stewart wasn't able to challenge Gordon for the lead. Gordon's win was a definite teamwork effort. Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, even ran his yap at Stewart's team after the race to make the apparent ruse look good.

It seemed like the closer they got to the end, the wilder it got with four lead changes in the last nine laps, including a couple of altercations, the last one of which brought out the caution that requited the green white checker finish.

Following Gordon across the finish line in the top ten were Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Scott Riggs, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Kevin Lepage, and Rusty Wallace. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Dale Jarrett -- #88 Ford -- finished 15th
2. Jimmie Johnson -- #48 Chevy -- finished 5th
3. Michael Waltrip -- #15 Chevy -- finished 37th
4. Tony Stewart -- #20 Chevy -- finished 7th
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- #8 Chevy -- finished 3rd
6. Jeff Burton -- #31 Chevy -- finished 29th
7. Mike Skinner -- #23 Dodge -- finished 30th
8. Kevin Lepage -- #37 Dodge -- finished 9th
9. Ryan Newman -- #12 Dodge -- finished 20th
10. Martin Truex Jr. -- #1 Chevy -- finished 34th

Next week the Cup Series moves west to the California Speedway. The Auto Club 500 is scheduled to be aired by the FOX network at two P.M. on Sunday, February 27th. Qualifying for the event will air on the FX channel on Saturday, February 26th, probably around 3 P.M. or a little before. The FX channel web site has a hard schedule to follow and isn't exact on it's times for specific events.

Last season's winner of the spring California event was Jeff Gordon. He was followed across the finish line in the top ten by Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, rookie Brendan Gaughan, Terry Labonte, Casey Mears, Kevin Harvick, and Ward Burton.

Kasey Kahne won the Bud Pole Award in the #9 Dodge Dealers sponsored Evernham Motorsports Dodge with a speed of 186.940 miles per hour. There were six caution periods for a total of 39 laps out of the 250 lap event on the two mile oval.

2/28/05… The last day of February reflects the first race of the season touting NASCAR's new rules. For the most part, most teams were on the ball with them, while others were left at the wayside and were not competitive during the event.

With Greg Biffle's boast about taking the lead by the fifth lap and winning the event going away, it seemed like Mohammad Ali was back in form. Biffle backed up his words by taking the lead on lap #4 and by eventually winning the event.

There were a lot of mechanical failures, which wasn't surprising considering the length of the event and the high RPM's that the engines constantly turn on the two mile track. A few of the old faithful engines gave up the ghost, leaving some of the competitors watching the ending of the event instead of being a part of it. Only one Hendrick Motorsports engine survived, while a couple of Roush Racing's engines also gave up the ghost. The Dodge engines were no exceptions, as some of them also bit the dust during the long grueling battle.

Following Greg Biffle across the finish line in the top ten were Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Ryan Newman, and Rusty Wallace. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. *Kyle Busch -- #5 Chevy -- finished 23rd
2. Brian Vickers -- #25 Chevy -- finished 21st
3. Jeremy Mayfield -- #19 Dodge -- finished 28th
4. Joe Nemechek -- #01 Chevy -- finished 39th
5. Greg Biffle -- #16 Ford -- finished 1st
6. Matt Kenseth -- #17 Ford -- finished 26th
7. Dale Jarrett -- #88 Ford -- finished 11th
8. Jimmie Johnson -- #48 Chevy -- finished 2nd
9. Ryan Newman -- #12 Dodge -- finished 9th
10. Mike Bliss -- #0 Chevy -- finished 12th

Kurt Busch moved up one spot to take the driver's points lead with a listing of 340 points. Jimmie Johnson moved up three spots in the standings to second, listed with a -5. Mark Martin moved up four spots to third listed now with a -39, followed by teammate Carl Edwards who moved up nine spots to fourth listed with a -53. Greg Biffle's win moved him up 19 spots to round out the top five with a -67. Elliott Sadler moved up five spots to sixth listed with a -68, followed by Tony Stewart who dropped one spot to seventh listed with a -72. Rusty Wallace moved up two spots to eighth listed also with a -72, followed by Sterling Marlin who dropped one spot to ninth listed with a -80. Jeff Gordon, last weeks winner suffered engine problems and dropped nine spots to round out the top ten with a -82.