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NASCAR Media Day In Daytona

Daytona Beach, FL ? NASCAR?s finest drivers rolled into Daytona Beach this week to begin preparations for the 50th anniversary edition of the Daytona 500. To kickoff the festivities, the star-studded field of drivers gathered for media day at the track.

Daytona 500 winners and Sprint Cup champions Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Michael Waltrip were among the cast of participants.

A year ago, the Car of Tomorrow was introduced and since it represented change, it was a source of concern throughout the season. For 2008, the COT is the only car and the teams and drivers have focused on refining it.

?Everyone has had an opportunity to catch their breath and evaluate what is going on,? said NASCAR president Mike Helton. ?The realization that this is our race car ends the debate and the teams have gone to work on the car, to see what they can do to make it go fast.?
Stewart admitted he has no concerns with the COT. ?It is the same car we ran for half of last season, and I can?t feel any differences with it. You need to be around other cars to feel changes. Also you have to know how to make adjustments with the car, but a lot of what you learn takes place during a race.?

Carl Edwards said he has been pleasantly surprised with the COT and indicated he was impressed with the test results on the 1.5 and 2-mile tracks.

Stewart, Edwards and the others thought the Budweiser Shootout will provide the teams with more education on car set-ups. ?Teams share information much more today than years ago, so Kyle Busch will learn from Denny Hamlin and me as to what adjustments are needed,? Stewart said.

Regarding the Daytona 500, Stewart said he can?t wait for the event. ?Everyone wants to win the Daytona 500, especially the 50th anniversary race. It is the biggest race of the year, and everyone will be working hard for the next 10 days to go for the win.?

In Edwards?s hometown of Columbia, Mo., the popular driver had a road named after him this week. ?They surprised me Wednesday and 150 people were on hand for the ceremony,? he said. ?They named the highway I grew up on, Highway WW, Carl Edwards Drive, which was a huge honor for me.?

Earnhardt, too, said he is ready to go. ?I can?t wait to get some laps with the car,? he noted. ?We tested and we were fast, which is good gauge for me. I am ready and I am excited about it.?

Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr. got a lion?s share of attention as the media continues to second-guess the presence of the open-wheel racers. ?I have gotten a lot of encouragement from my IRL friends,? Franchitti said. ?Sam Hornish told me how difficult it (stock cars) was to drive these cars. As soon as I got in one of them, I understood what Sam was saying. I look it as a learning experience, which is why I came over here. Chip (Ganassi) was very honest with me when he told me how difficult it will be.?

Added the Indianapolis 500 champion, ?Indianapolis and Daytona are two of the biggest races going, and I know how it felt to win Indianapolis. It would be great to see how it would feel to win this one. Five years ago I would not have thought there would be four Indy 500 winners racing at Daytona.? (Hornish, Jacques Villenueve and Juan Montoya are the others.)

Hornish was on cloud nine as his wife, Crystal, just gave birth to their first child, daughter Addison, three days ago.

Even though James Hylton, 73 years of age and the oldest 500 entrant, is eager to race in one more Daytona 500, he hasn?t forgotten the first time he came to the track. ?Coming through the tunnel and I seen the track, it took my breath away,? the driver said. ?For an old country boy to see the banking was something else.?

Being tall, Boris Said applauded the additional head room and the safety features of the COT. Commenting on factors that make racing safer, he added, ?The biggest safety factors in racing are the softer walls, the HANS device and the seats.?

In addition to the Daytona 500, he plans to run four Cup and three Nationwide Series races. Sad?s team consists of a crew chief and three mechanics and the popular driver handles all the paperwork and travel arrangements. ?There?s a lot of work that goes into going to these races and I do it all,? he stated. ?It is amazing what has to be done to get to these races.?

Said is one of those who believe the top-35 qualifying rule should be abandoned. ?Qualifying is boring, particularly on television,? he said.

Michael Waltrip Racing had a frustrating start-up season a year ago but Michael Waltrip, the driver/owner, believes 2008 will be a turn-around season. ?We now have the financial wherewithal to bring it all together; it takes a while for the culture to change,? he said. ?I do know we are farther ahead of where we were a year ago. It is starting to come together.?

Waltrip said his father taught him the principle of under-selling and over-delivering. ?Last year because of my confidence in Toyota, I over-sold and under-delivered. And I am going to change that in the year ahead.?

When Joe Gibbs Racing transitioned from Chevrolet to Toyota, Waltrip said it benefited all Toyota teams.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is eager for the season to start. ?My tough years in F1 mellowed me, and it turned out to be a good training ground for NASCAR,? he said. He admitted he had not followed NASCAR while living in Europe, but this condition changed over time. ?NASCAR is a huge challenge, which makes it very worthwhile. When you are learning, you do your best as you are like a sponge.?

Villeneuve said the biggest challenge for him was getting accustomed to the first stages of stock-car races. ?The first laps were very difficult for me,? he said. ?To be fast on cold tires on the first lap is so different from open wheel because of tire-warmers. Also, racing so close together for all those laps was a challenge for me, but it makes for good fun.?

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