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NASCAR drivers eager to get back to racing

Submitted by SHNS on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 13:31

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Stock-car racing's finest faced one of their biggest challenges of SpeedWeeks Thursday, running the gauntlet during the sport's annual Daytona 500 Media Day.Some of them would rather face an angry Jimmy Spencer on the rampage than meet this pack of writers, photographers and TV types.The swarm of journalists may give them an idea of what to expect in Saturday night's Bud Shootout, the first real competition since November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.Jimmie Johnson, the defending Cup champion, will be one of the 23 drivers in the Shootout."I'm looking forward to getting back on the track in race conditions," Johnson said. "We've made a lot of laps testing the past few weeks, but there's no comparison to being out there in the battle."It's going to be interesting to see how the cars handle in a big pack."The 70-lap race will pay $200,000 to win, but more important it will be a good chance for drivers and crew chiefs to see how NASCAR's new car handles at a track as big as Daytona International Speedway. The starting lineup will be set in a drawing Thursday night.It will also be the Toyota debut for Tony Stewart, who won last year's Shootout. And it will be the first run for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a Rick Hendrick car."The Shootout is a definite plus, letting us see how this new car design is going to react at Daytona," Johnson said. "Plus, it's just a no-holds-barred race. It's a great way to get back in the groove without the added pressure of points on the line."It will also be an opportunity to see if those January test speeds by Hendrick's Chevy teams and Toyota's teams were for real or just for show.Dale Jarrett, a three-time winner of the Shootout, will be a Toyota driver to watch."We had a pretty good test a few weeks ago, and it certainly was a big improvement from where we were a year ago," Jarrett said. "We were pretty pleased with what we saw from these cars during single-car runs."It'd be nice to qualify as one of the top two cars (in Sunday's Daytona 500 pole runs) because you can rest easy and just worry about the Daytona 500 itself and not about the Duals. I don't know if we'll have that much car, but you never know."I'm just looking forward to getting things started. It will be my last qualifying session for the Daytona 500, and I'm looking forward to making the most out of these last five races."Jarrett will move to the TV booth after that, as a retired driver.Johnson is preparing for a run at a third straight title. Cale Yarborough is the only driver in NASCAR's 60 years to win three in a row."We've all enjoyed celebrating the championship, but that's over and done with, it's a new season and a whole new set of challenges," Johnson said."When you're on top of the hill, everybody's looking to knock you off. This sport is unforgiving -- guys too busy looking back at what they've accomplished are the guys who are going to get their butts handed to them. We don't intend to be those guys."The Shootout, a first for four drivers -- Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, J.J. Yeley and Reed Sorenson -- will be run in two parts: a 20-lap sprint (50 miles), followed by a 10-minute break, then a 50-lap run. And the race must end under green.(Contact Mike Mulhern at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)