NASCAR - Everything Set Up for the Daytona 500
By Audrey Nolan
The Daytona 500 season opening race is considered the most important race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and it is held at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Is the race with the biggest purse in NASCAR series, and it is a 200 lap long (around 500 miles). This one will be the 51st running of the Daytona 500 and the winner will be presented with the Harley J. Earl trophy. This race is also known as “The Great American Race”.
The qualifying phase of the Daytona 500 is over and the drivers are getting ready for this important race. The winner on the first qualifier group was Jeff Gordon who led 15 of the 60 laps. This victory is his first one in a long time since he did not win any race last season 2008; his last victory was in October of 2007. In the second qualifier group the winner was Kyle Busch who overcame Mark Martin to win this race and assure a spot in the big race of next Sunday.
Some other drivers that have a spot on the big race are Scott Rigs, AJ Allmendinger, Jeremy Mayfield and Regan Smith. All of them were very emotional and happy to be able to race on Sunday’s big race where the minimum price is $256.735 by finishing last.
"Any win's exciting and meaningful to us right now," Gordon said. "I think what makes this special is, one, these races aren't easy to win. You know, it takes a good race car, a great race team, you know, to pull it off, and a little bit of luck, some good moves. That fortunately worked out for us."
On the other hand, Allmendinger had failed to qualify to the Daytona 500 on his first two seasons; and now he can finally take a break after being very stressed out working for the qualification, so he can give the best of him on Sunday’s race. He stated that he was very happy with the result and after being left out the last two years, this year he felt like he deserve it. He was competing with the Red Bull team but was fired late last year; he is now working on a deal with Richard Petty Motors.
Mayfield was feeling the same way and after being without team and sidelined for the previous two seasons, he decided to create his own team with a group of volunteers, which has been very difficult for him but at the end the result has paid him back since he got a spot in the race. This driver that have only raced 25 times in this past two years is putting all of his effort because this was the only option he had to continue with his career.
For his part, Scott Rigs had no job until last month when he finally was taken by Tommy Baldwin, who was putting on his own-team together and hired Riggs to race for him. He is very excited for working with Tommy and stated that he is going to give the best of him on Sunday’s race.
All of the drivers are getting prepared for Sunday’s big race; the question will be who is going to win? Right now the opinions are divided, even though a lot of people think that the duel will be between Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, although we just have to wait and see.
About the Author
Audrey Nolan is a high-ranking writer on NASCAR for the sports betting industry. Feel free to reprint this article in its whole on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.