10 Drivers To Watch In The Daytona 500

By Bill Marx, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Here’s a look at 10 drivers to watch in Sunday’s Daytona 500, the first race of the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season. All statistical references are for Sprint Cup races at Daytona unless otherwise indicated. Driver rating is based on the past 10 races at the track.

Tony Stewart, 108.2 driver rating. Stewart is not quite to the point Dale Earnhardt was before Senior won his only Daytona 500, but Stewart’s status is growing in this area. Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, has been successful at Daytona in everything except the 500. He has three Cup wins, five Nationwide wins and three victories in the Bud Shootout at the track.

Kyle Busch, 101.0. Busch has led the most laps in the 500 the past two years but remains winless in the race. Last year he was a victim of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s impatience and exasperation, crashing out after leading 88 of the first 123 laps. Only Stewart has led more laps than Busch in the past 10 races at the track (516-235).

Matt Kenseth, 96.1. Kenseth picked up his first superspeedway win in the Cup series in last year’s 500 when the race was stopped after 152 laps because of rain. He led seven laps, the last six under caution. Overall, Kenseth has nine top 10s in 20 starts, with three finishes in the top five.

Jimmie Johnson, 94.3. Johnson finished second last July for his first top five since winning the 500 in 2006 when crew chief Chad Knaus was serving a suspension. In Johnson’s first nine races at the track, he posted five top fives and seven top 10s. His worst finish was 18th. But in his last seven races at Daytona he has two top 10s and an average finish of 23.4.

Kurt Busch, 92.5. Since joining Penske Racing in 2006, Busch has posted six of his 10 top 10s, including five of his nine top fives. Busch is excellent in restrictor-plate races but hasn’t been able to break through for his first win. In 2008, he finished second for the third time in the 500, right on then-teammate Ryan Newman’s bumper, pushing him to victory.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., 87.3. Earnhardt will start on the front row, and once again, much will be expected from him. He has two wins at Daytona, including the 2004 Daytona 500. Hendrick Motorsports gave the No. 88 team a lot of attention in the offseason. Considering how poor of a season Earnhardt had in 2009, a win Sunday arguably would be the biggest of his career.

Ryan Newman, 85.9. Newman’s victory in 2008 is his ONLY win in the series since September 2005. He finished 36th last year, touching off a lousy start to his season: 27.8 average finish in the first four races. But he caught fire over the next 10 races, giving himself enough of a boost to make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Daytona is not one of his stronger tracks. He has three top 10s in 16 starts and a 20.9 average finish.

Mark Martin, 81.8. Martin is winless in 49 starts at Daytona. Only Dave Marcis (67 starts), Ricky Rudd (60), Terry Labonte (55) and Kyle Petty (52) experienced more futility. Martin fell .02 seconds short in the 2007 500 to Kevin Harvick; it was Martin’s best finish at Daytona. He starts Sunday’s race from the pole.

Kevin Harvick, 81.4. Harvick hasn’t won a Cup race since that day, a drought of 107 races. Harvick finished second last year in the rain-shortened race for his sixth top 10 in 17 starts. He won the Bud Shootout last Saturday, the fourth driver to win the exhibition race two years in a row.

Juan Pablo Montoya, 59.1. Montoya picked up his only top 10 in six races at Daytona last summer. He finished 14th in the 500 last year, giving him—by far—his best yearly performance at the track since breaking into the Cup series in 2007. He likely will do even better this year.