DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Fords look like kings this week, and Chevy drivers are having to try to play it smart.
How else to explain the finish to Thursday's second 150, with Jimmie Johnson, in a Rick Hendrick Chevy, pushing Ford's Matt Kenseth, while Greg Biffle, Kenseth's teammate, was getting a push from Chevy's Regan Smith?
Or is just the luck of the draw? Without radios this season, drivers are having to play a different game.
Fords are strong and cool, and Chevys are spitting a lot of water.
The best two Chevy drivers here so far are Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If engine temperatures are any indication of what to expect in Sunday's Daytona 500, smart money looks to be on the Fords as a group, and Stewart and Earnhardt.
And what about those Toyota's? Not much. "We had a little bit of an issue with the car," Shootout winner Kyle Busch said of his unexpectedly weak performance. "It didn't seem to handle quite as I was expecting it to."
And why, pray tell?
"Didn't quite get good enough practice time with the guys in big enough packs to examine the buffeting of the air and how the car was driving through traffic."
Kyle Busch: a lot of cheers after his brilliant performance in Saturday's Shootout (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
Or is engine temperature the biggest variable among teams right now?
Thursday was hot, and Sunday should be maybe 10 degrees cooler. But a number of drivers have complained about excessive engine temperatures.
Johnson in fact was spitting water in the final miles, his engine was so hot.
Did NASCAR go overboard in its new rules to limit two-car packs?
And, once again, just what was so wrong with those two-car drafts? Any two-car pair then had enough power and punch to drive to the front any time it wanted to. Here now drivers are just racing in a big wad; yes, they can pick and chose a line, but they can't go to the front very easily, and they certainly don't seem in much control of their destiny.
Bad moves?
Maybe so.
Ford's Aric Almirola has found himself in something of a controversy over his role in Danica Patrick's crash.
"It really started at the start-finish line coming to the white," Almirola says. "Jeff Burton was giving me a huge push, and I got a really big run. At the last minute Jamie McMurray pulled down to block, and I kind of checked up.
"I got into the back of him and started pushing him down into one…and I thought we might be able to work something out. We got into turn one and I got side-drafted and put three-wide.
"Next thing I knew I was getting a big, big push from behind. There was a hole under McMurray, and it was pretty open. He kind of moved down to change lanes, because he was following Kevin Harvick, and he barely came across my nose and turned me hard left into Danica's car.
"We touched, and she went spinning through the infield for the big crash."
Body-builder Jillian Michaels: in the workout room, with Mark Martin (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
And then a buddy of Patrick's, Jillian Michaels ( http://www.jillianmichaels.com/ ), tweeted angrily about Almirola.
"I'm flattered she was watching," Patrick said. "There were a lot of people watching it seemed like; I got messages from other countries.
"You are asking what I think about Jillian Michaels wanting to kick Aric's butt after the wreck: She probably could. He is pretty tall and works out a lot, but Jillian's got a lot of fire. I know that from working with her.
"She is very stern, and she definitely has an aggressive side to her. Maybe that is why we get along so well.
"Thank you, Jillian, I guess.
"She has my back then."
Jeff Gordon: surrounded by all the NASCAR safety equipment that keeps these drivers alive in hard crashes (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jeff Gordon called it "a scary wreck.
"When I saw her car heading to the wall at that angle, I was really nervous.
"But I was very impressed the way the Safer Barrier worked…and the car, the seat, the HANS.
"To see her able to walk away from it, I was very happy to see.
"The hands-up thing: I've never taken my hands off the wheel in a crash in a Cup car. I was more worried about her crushing her hand in the head support with her helmet.
"But that seems to be something she instinctively does now."
Biffle and Kenseth came dangerously close to triggering a big crash in the final miles of the second 150, when leader Biffle swerved high to block Kenseth's charge, and when Kenseth then swept low across Biffle's rear bump to complete the pass.
Kenseth's swoop nearly took out a lot of cars when Johnson tried to follow him.
"That was a total Kyle Busch move for sure," Busch said with a laugh.
"Matt did great, exactly what you expect coming down toward the end of a race…and making it exciting.
"Watch his hands. Watch the film and watch his hands…how little his hands moved but how much his car moved -- because he was being pushed by
Jimmie. He couldn't just crank on the wheel and turn down and go under Biffle; he was like really trying to guide it.
"And the way he slipped through there, just barely missing the back of Biffle's car…and having Jimmie follow right through…and having Jimmie's car barely miss the front of whoever was back there (Smith).
"It was cool. It was like a hot knife through butter. Smooth."
And, to be honest, on the verge of disaster. If Smith hadn't played it cool, the entire pack could have wiped out.
Little wonder that most men decided to skip Friday's Daytona 500 practice.
Biffle's crew chief, Matt Puccia, says "the twins were probably the closest we will get to race conditions, so that was what we used to tune the car.
"Today was just verification. We swapped the engine and just verified everything was good."
The key players in Thursday's second 150: eventual winner Matt Kenseth (17) and teammate Greg Biffle (16), and Jimmie Johnson (48) and Regan Smith (78) (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Meanwhile over in the Jeff Gordon camp it's not so pretty.
Gordon crashed hard in the Shootout, and in Thursday's 150 he was never a factor.
"We were pretty much not a part of the race," Gordon conceded. "So we've got to look at what we can do to make sure that doesn't happen in the 500."
Gordon pointed to overheating issues, "which didn't allow us to get very aggressive.
"It's the ultimate test session to prepare for the 500…and we obviously have to do better than that."
Should NASCAR let teams now have a larger grill opening, to aid cooling, or change the water pressure valve?
"I'm not necessarily saying we need to lobby for anything…because if you give us more opening to cool down, then we're going to be pushing (two-car drafting) again," Gordon says.
"So I would prefer to have to deal with this than to be pushing throughout the whole race.
"I haven't said a word to NASCAR.
"We can still win this race even with it.
"We weren't the only ones; everybody is dealing with it.
"It's just going to weigh more into our strategy for the race and how aggressive we need to be.
"We're starting 16th, so we know we're in a vulnerable position -- either go in the conserve mode or go into high-risk situations where you've got to be super aggressive."
The Gordons: Jeff and Ingrid, and son Leo (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
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