Countdown to Daytona: When They Wreck, They Wreck Big

No. 29 driver Kevin Harvick, who won last year’s Daytona 500 with a dramatic final-lap steal as the field behind him exploded into fire, predicts that this year’s Great American Race isn’t going to be anything like the ‘07 run. For one thing, he says, the Daytona track is worn out and rough, factors which thwart the kind of sustained side-by-side battles that fans have come to expect. Other drivers point to the Car of Tomorrow, whose compatibility with the particular style of racing at Daytona is still largely unknown.  Restrictor-plate racing, which forces cars to clump together in packs and use each other’s draft to slingshot to the front, is complicated by the altered handling and aerodynamics of the CoT. As always at Daytona, little errors amount to big wrecks. 2007 Nextel Cup champ Jimmie Johnson worried about the CoT’s erratic handling in testing at Daytona, and No. 10 driver Patrick Carpentier noted that its fragile shell doesn’t hold up well to the low-grade bumpin’ and bangin’ typical of Daytona, leading to squirrelly steering as the car gets misshapen and fights against aerodynamics. The CoT’s behavior is the big question mark, and it’s what will make it either a sedate and uneventful Daytona or a long, brutal one filled with big wrecks.

Which driver is your pick for this year’s Daytona 500 winner?