Mammoth Blog

Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya starts 15th. Scotland's Dario Franchitti goes off 40th.

Neither is a likely winner of the 50th version of the Great American Race, although on the occasions in which the Daytona 500 turns into a crash fest, anything is possible.

The likely foreign winner isn't a driver. We have now seen that, instead, it is a car.

Denny Hamlin won Thursday's second Twin 150 qualifying race in a Toyota.

Todd Bodine won Friday's Craftsman Truck Series race in a Toyota.

Tony Stewart won Saturday's Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series race in a Toyota.

In today's Daytona 500, Michael Waltrip starts in the front row in a Toyota. Hamlin and Stewart are directly behind in their Gibbs Racing machines in Rows 2 and 3.
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The mighty Hendrick Motorsports team that features Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. faces a real threat from the Gibbs Toyotas.

"I knew it was real when we first came down here to test," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The Toyota has been fast. Those guys got the knowledge to get cars around the track, know how to get to Victory Lane.

"They're a good company. I had the privilege of being able to get a look at it one time. I don't think they would have made the change [to Toyota] if it wasn't for the better."

When Toyota entered NASCAR's highest level of racing in 2007, it didn't make much of an imprint. Toyota won no races. None of its drivers placed in the top 30. Michael Waltrip, heading his own team, endured a year of punishment and embarrassment.

That all appears to be in the rearview mirror.

"Everybody has talked about how much Joe Gibbs Racing has brought the level of Toyota up," Stewart said. "It's not been us. It's what they did before we came along.

"You know, we're able to help with little things here and there, but they laid a very nice foundation for all of us to work from."

Because of Johnson's dominance in last year's Chase, because he and Gordon own six Cup championships between them and because Earnhardt Jr. is confident that the switch from DEI to Hendrick will return him to Victory Lane, Hendrick is the favorite here and everywhere else in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

But the Gibbs drivers are ready to take their shot. That includes Kyle Busch, who switched from Hendrick to Gibbs and who finished second in both Friday's truck race and Saturday's Nationwide race.

"If I win [the 500], I'm going to be the happiest man alive, that's for sure," Busch said. "That's what I've been saving my win for here this week."

Busch has one of nine Toyota's in today's field of 43. There will be more Toyotas on the track than Fords (seven). And although there are 11 Dodges entered, it's Toyota that is the greatest threat to end the Chevrolet dominance of this restrictor-plate track.

Stewart has two victories at this track in the July Pepsi 400 race but is still looking for his first win in the 500.

But the unpredictable nature of the race makes him feel like anything but a favorite.

"You look at the last lap of the Daytona 500 last year, nobody would have predicted it was going to be down between Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick," Stewart said. "I wouldn't want to be a bookie trying to lay odds on the Daytona 500.

"I don't know how you predict who's going to win it. So much can happen at the end of the race when guys get their cars driving halfway decent, that it even makes it hard to predict with two laps to go who is going to win. It's hard to narrow it down to two guys."

But it's not that difficult or risky a proposition to narrow it down to two race teams.

The Hendrick Chevies and the Gibbs Toyotas - the 50th running of the Great American Race is almost bound to come down to those two.

Considering where Toyota was a year ago with Waltrip's crew chief suspended and the team docked points for an illegal fuel additive, with only four cars in the field and none finishing in the top 20, it may already be a nominee for Comeback Manufacturer of the Year. source