Monday, February 19, 2007
Rough start for Toyota: Toyota's NASCAR Nextel Cup debut didn't go exactly as hoped. After getting past the infractions of Michael Waltrip's No. 55 Camry and seeing three teams fail to qualify for the Daytona 500 earlier in the week, Toyota officials were looking to finish Speedweeks on an upswing. It didn't happen. Of the four Camrys in Sunday's 500, only Dale Jarrett finished on the lead lap. He started 43rd and ran as high as 21st before finishing 22nd. Waltrip started 15th, was in 39th by Lap 10 and finished 30th. David Reutimann started in 40th and finished 40th. Hartford's Dave Blaney gave the Toyota camp its best hope. Starting 37th, Blaney ran as high as 14th until Lap 187 when he dove down pit road at nearly full speed to avoid Carl Edwards, who had smacked the wall. Blaney, not realizing he had a right front tire going down, exited pit road and shot up the track, collecting Ken Schrader. NASCAR first penalized Blaney for failing to slow going down pit road by holding him for five laps. It then told the team to park the car. Blaney finished 34th.
Montoya finishes 19th: Rookie Juan Pablo Montoya finished 19th in his debut at Daytona. Starting 36th, Montoya struggled with what he termed a "silly tight" car all day. "We were really tight, and we were struggling," said Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner. "The car was so bad, and I don't know what happened. We really didn't change the car at all from the 150 [qualifying race on Thursday]. We had great motors here. A top-20 is kind of what I wanted to do here."
Bowyer takes a wild ride: While Richard Childress Racing's other drivers were crossing the finish line in first (Kevin Harvick) and third (Jeff Burton), Clint Bowyer was sliding across the finish line on the roof of his No. 07 Chevy. Running as high as fourth at one point, Bowyer was in 18th when he was swept up in the last-lap crash that turned his car onto its roof and sent it sliding down the frontstretch and across the finish line. "We were just racing hard," Bowyer said. "Everybody was going for it. It's the Daytona 500. I thought I was clear, and then somebody clipped me and turned us over. Oh, well."
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service