Daytona thoughts and observations

For the fourth straight race, the fans at Daytona got to see a wild and crazy finish. Kyle Busch was inches ahead of Carl Edwards when the caution flag flew in Saturday's Coke Zero 400, giving Busch his sixth win of the season and his first career victory at Daytona. Edwards crossed the line second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and David Ragan.

Thoughts and observations

That finish at Daytona was insane wasn't it? First, Carl Edwards punts Jeff Gordon out of the way. Then a melee breaks out while Busch and Edwards are side by side for the lead on a green-white-checkered finish. For a few tense moments no one really knew who won the race. Granted, I'd rather that have happened at the line instead of under caution, but it still made for a very dramatic finish.

With his sixth win of the season, Kyle Busch extended his point lead to 182 points over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kyle is making things look easy at this point and unless a disaster happens his place in the Chase is all but locked up.

While two of the Roush Fenway cars faltered, the other three made their presence known on Saturday. Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th respectively on Saturday. For Edwards and Kenseth it marks both drivers best career Daytona finish. For Ragan its his second career top 5 at Daytona in just four starts. After that performance, I'm interested to see how these teams perform at Talladega later this year.

For the second time this year Robby Gordon showed up late in the running of a race at Daytona and picked up a top 10. At least this time he didn't have the wrong nose on his car.

The bad luck brigade at Daytona were: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle. Everyone but Stewart were involved in wrecks that ended their nights early. Stewart on the other hand wasn't feeling all that well and had to get out of the car and seek medical attention. J.J. Yeley was doing a fine job in his place until getting involved in a late crash that relegated the No. 20 car to a 20th place finish.

Kurt Busch looks like he finally has some momentum on his side. After winning last week at New Hampshire he rolled into Daytona and picked up his third top 5 of the season. Is the older Busch finally back on track?

Jeff Burton's string of consecutive top 15 finishes ended at Daytona where he finished 37th. Before Daytona he hadn't finished any worse then 15th all season long (a string of 17 straight races).

Jeff Gordon looked primed to win his first race of the 2008 season on Saturday, right up until getting punted into the infield by Carl Edwards. Everything i've seen and heard indicates that Edwards didn't mean to do it and even Gordon said he didn't think Edwards meant to either. It's just unfortunate that Gordon was in position to win and he ended up on the wrong end of someone else's bumper.

Mark Martin looked strong most of the race Saturday before coming home 10th. For those that don't know, Martin was part of an announcement last weekend at Daytona that confirmed he would take over the No. 5 being vacated by Casey Mears at the end of the 2008 season. Martin will drive the car full time in 2009 and take one last shot at winning that elusive Sprint Cup Championship. He'll also drive the car part-time in 2010 (likely splitting time with Brad Keselowski unless something changes). Do I think he'll win the title? No, probably not. But that doesn't mean he won't show up in victory lane before 2009 is over.

With only 8 races left before the chase begins things changed a lot after Daytona. Kenseth jumped all the way from 13th to 9th in the standings, a jump of 4 positions. Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved past Jeff Burton into 2nd, Kasey Kahne moved up 2 spots to 8th and Bowyer moved up 1 spot to 10th. In addition to Burton dropping a spot, Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart dropped three spots each down to 11th and 12th. Kevin Harvick fell out of the chase, slipping back to 13th position, 2 points behind Tony Stewart.

Nothing changed after Daytona in the top 35 in owner points. Scott Riggs failed to qualify at Daytona, meaning he couldn't gain any points on 35th place in the standings. He remains 36th in the points, 70 points behind Sam Hornish Jr. in 35th. The man who is really making moves toward 35th is AJ Allmendinger in 37th. If he continues improving he could make his way into the top 35 by season's end.