Daytona 500 Thoughts

• Seeing Jimmie Johnson win was OK. Not my first choice, but he's not bad. Yeah, they cheated earlier in the week, but 1.) if your not cheating, your not trying in this business, and 2.) there's no doubt the Daytona 500 car was heavily scrutinized by NASCAR, the crew chief was suspended, and they still won. So, hats off to them.
  
• Newman! Heck of a run, had me on the edge of my seat with the DVR recording in the final 30 laps, as he had just as good of a chance to win as anybody. What a strong car he had today. A third place finish at Daytona is excellent. Now it's all about the championship...
• Tony Stewart further established himself as an idiot and a hypocrite today. Complete mental disconnect at 190 mph is dangerous, and NASCAR should take note.
• To Jamie McMurray: partial mental disconnect isn't good either. Getting behind the wheel of the #26 (formerly #97) Roush Ford must require such bad on-track behavior.
• I think Matt Kenseth got shafted. He got purposely wrecked by Stewart, and spun back across traffic and almost got clipped head-on at probably 160 mph or so, which would have been ugly. His "revenge" was nothing more than a little "hello" message to Stewart under caution and should not have been penalized.
• I've never been a Dale Jr. fan, but I'm getting more impressed with both his on-track and off-track behavior. He was good in the post-race interview and he seems to be maturing into the role he's inherited. He doesn't do the stupid backward ballcap anymore either.
  

Next week: California.