Benny Phillips.
On race morning, just outside the tunnel entrance to Daytona International Speedway, I noticed a young man with the bill of his ball cap turned around. He was wearing a T-shirt inscribed: "The face is familiar, but I can't seem to remember my name." Style has its price.
But how was I to know this kid of wisdom, this prognosticator, this palmist was perhaps delivering a message? Later in the day, the Daytona 500 looked familiar, but competitors didn't seem to remember the name, either. Three drivers led 193 of 200 laps. There were nine lead changes among seven drivers. Two of the drivers led under caution.
This is not what you expect at Daytona and Talladega, NASCAR's biggest superspeedways. The stock car record for lead changes in a 500-mile race is 75, set at Talladega in May of 1984. In the '74 Daytona 500, there were 60 lead changes among 15 drivers. Since restrictor plate racing was instated in 1988, the most lead changes in the Daytona 500 occurred in 1993. There were 38 among 13 drivers. There were 33 lead changes among 13 drivers in 1994, and 32 among 15 drivers in '96. Last year, nine drivers exchanged the lead 17 times. You have to go way back at Daytona to find more lackadaisical racing. Try the '64 and '65 Daytona 500s when there were just seven lead changes among four drivers.
This year's Daytona 500 came up short in overall competition. The last 42 laps salvaged only part of the day. Johnny Benson, a Pontiac driver, took two tires on a pit stop to gain track position and found himself in the lead on lap 158. For 39 laps, he held off a fleet of Fords. Four laps from the finish, Dale Jarrett went nearly to the apron coming off turn two and drove under Benson. He had help from his friends, and led a five-car Ford sweep to the finish. Benson, out of the draft, faded to 12th. The packed house, glued to their seats for 158 laps, finally had reason to stand and cheer the last 42 laps.
Still, they knew it was going to happen; they knew one Pontiac was not going to hold off the wolf pack of Fords.
Jarrett stood like the Jolly Green Giant on an ant hill. He dominated all week, and that makes it difficult to keep interest flowing when only one team waves the banner. This is not the first year a brand has arrived in Daytona with an advantage, but not since Petty's Plymouth with the Hemi engine in '64 and the Fords of '65, can I remember a brand having this much dominance. Ford was clearly the favorite.
But somebody always cries at Daytona in February. If it isn't Chevrolet, it's Ford, and if it isn't Ford, it's Chevy. Pontiac has had its day, too, under the weeping willow. But for gosh sakes, just one year I would like to see the one with the advantage abstain from using the bit about "we just worked harder than everybody else all winter. We deserve to be fastest because our guys worked the hardest." Hogwash! All race teams work hard. The Robert Yates operation wore out the phrase this year. Translated this means, "The brand of car we are racing has a tremendous advantage" or, "We pulled off a fast one and NASCAR hasn't caught us yet."
And then there are the competitors who try to convince the press by saying, "Well, from where I was sitting, it was a great race, very competitive." This doesn't fly, either. The press knows a mangy hound when it sees one. So do the fans. Give the week's honesty award to Mike Skinner, who said after the 125-mile qualifying races that he could hear people snoring in the grandstands.
Want to hear another speech? Pick up on NASCAR's Gary Nelson in the week before the 500: "The Chevrolet teams are catching up. They are working hard to make up the difference. We believe they can get there."
Nelson, a former crew chief himself, was asked where he would start if he were a crew chief of a Chevy or Pontiac team. He rambled through part of the dictionary, but never really answered the question. Mike Helton, NASCAR director of operations, admitted there was a problem. He promised it would be fixed. Helton's word is as good as gold in my book. We have suffered through the worst of superspeedway races this year.
Yes, the race resembled a Daytona 500, at least part of the time, but some of the time it was hard to recognize.