Roush Fenway Drivers In 400 Spotlight// Dale Storm

Roush Fenway Drivers In 400 Spotlight For Different Reasons

Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400. Same track, 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, but separated by 4-1/2 months, two seasons and distinctly different temperatures and humidity. As different as night and day? You could say that, although this year’s Daytona 500 became a night race due to its first postponement.
Perhaps that’s why only four drivers – Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, LeeRoy Yarbrough and Fireball Roberts – have been able to win both Daytona races in the same season. Allison’s sweep, the most recent, came 30 years ago when he drove a DiGard Racing Buick to Victory Lane in 1982.
Matt Kenseth, who’ll make his final Daytona start for Roush Fenway Racing, can become the fifth, having won February’s Daytona 500. Kenseth also won NASCAR’s crown jewel in 2009. Kenseth isn’t the only member of the Roush Fenway organization hopeful of duplicating February’s success. Greg Biffle finished third and Coors Light Pole winner Carl Edwards was eighth.
The race looms particularly large for Edwards, who rides a 50-race winless streak as he battles for a Chase position. Right now, he’s neither in the top 10 (11th) nor a potential "Wild Card" qualifier and has yet to win a restrictor-plate race. The current "Wild Cards" are held by Kyle Busch, the 2008 Coke Zero 400 winner and holder of the top Driver Rating (97.5) in the past 15 races at Daytona. Busch, 12th, is 42 points out of the top 10.
The battle for the second "card" is a three-way dead heat – literally. Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Joey Logan, 14th-16th, each have tabulated 463 points with one victory apiece. Kahne would be the second and final "Wild Card" qualifier were it to be awarded today.
NASCAR’s rule book breaks ties by comparing drivers’ best finishes. Kahne owns the top secondary performance of the trio, his second place in Saturday’s race at Kentucky Speedway. Newman’s next best is a third while Logano’s comparison is an eighth. A driver must rank 11th through 20th to be eligible to take a "Wild Card" spot in the Chase.

Dale Storm: Points Lead Hunt Continues For Junior

In this "turn back the clock" season for NASCAR’s nine-time Most Popular Driver, many "most since" statistics help illustrate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s phenomenal season. His seven top-five finishes are already his most since 2008 – and as many as the last two seasons combined. … His 13 tops 10s (which ties Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson for a series-high) are his most since 2008. … His 218 laps led are his most since 2008. … And, of course, his win at Michigan was his first since 2008.
Seemingly all that’s left to attain is the points lead, a hurdle Earnhardt hasn’t leapt since October 2004 after Talladega. He has flirted with the points lead on numerous occasions, sitting second in the points after six races this season. His average points position this season: 3.1. That’s the second-best average points position through 17 races of his career. His best was 1.9 in 2004.
Earnhardt, second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, sits 11 points behind leader Matt Kenseth heading into Saturday night’s race at Daytona.
A runner-up in this year’s Daytona 500 (to, coincidentally, Matt Kenseth), Earnhardt has two series points wins at Daytona. The first, famously, came in the July night race in 2001 – the first visit to the track after his father’s passing in that year’s Daytona 500. The second was the Daytona 500 in 2004.