Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Sports

TBO > Sports

The 'Real' Season Begins For NASCAR

The Associated Press

Published: February 21, 2009

FONTANA, Calif. - Daytona is over. Let the real season begin.

That's been the prevailing theme this week as the NASCAR Sprint Cup series moves to Southern California for today's Auto Club 500.

"I think the only thing you can take out of Daytona is momentum and points," three-time Auto Club Speedway winner Jeff Gordon said.

The season-opening Daytona 500 is NASCAR's Super Bowl. But it's also one of only four Cup races run each season with restricted engines. The combination of less horsepower and the big tracks at Daytona and Talladega makes the events unique.

Cup teams prepare the entire winter for Daytona, building special cars with special engines.

Then, suddenly, it's on to a whole new world - the 2-mile oval at Auto Club Speedway and the 1.5-mile tracks at Las Vegas and Atlanta the next two weeks. Those tracks are the models for most of the venues on the 36-race Cup schedule, so today's race should begin to answer some questions.

"This is the first time all year that we get to go out and run and we're not depending on everybody else around us," two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart said. "I do feel like this is really the first true test of where everybody is at, and a truer read to the season than just Daytona."

Three-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and 2008 runner-up Carl Edwards, the drivers expected by many to vie for this year's title, got off to so-so starts at Daytona.

Edwards was never really a contender and wound up 18th, while Johnson battled a tire problem throughout the race and finished 31st.

"Last week did not end up the way we wanted, but it was cool that Ford was in Victory Lane," said Edwards, who saw Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth win.

But Edwards, the defending champion in this race and one of four straight Roush Fenway winners in this event, has finished worse than sixth in Fontana only once in nine starts.

"This place is a lot of fun for me," Edwards said. "I love racing here. ... We were really good in practice, and this was the start of a really great season last year."

Share this: