Rearview mirror: Delays? Sure, but NASCAR gives fans what they want

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It's impossible to put into words the feeling of starting the NASCAR season with the Daytona 500. You know all the cliches -- how this is the Super Bowl of NASCAR, the World Series of motorsports, the crown jewel of stock car racing.

They all apply and it is what makes NASCAR the unique sport that it is.

It wasn't by design that NASCAR decided to kick off the schedule with the biggest race of the season. When the sport began it happened down the street from "The World Center of Racing," on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

When Bill France built this mammoth racetrack in 1959, he created the Daytona 500 to open its doors. And as the sport evolved the race became more legendary until finally blossoming into arguably the biggest race in the world.

Opening the year at Daytona in a way divides the season into two parts -- Speedweeks and then the other 35 races of the Sprint Cup Series season. So much preparation goes into Daytona, which is followed up by spending nearly two weeks getting ready through practices, qualifying and preliminary races. It's easy to forget that by the time the checkered flag flies on the 500, there's still nearly nine months left on the schedule.

Nearly everyone who rolls out of this place on Sunday night will be exhausted, whether they're drivers, crew members, owners, fans, track and NASCAR officials or media members.

They'll have maybe a day to regroup before preparing for the "real" start to the NASCAR season in Fontana.

• While the track issues will capture most of the headlines from Sunday's race, what shouldn't be lost in the controversy is the bottom line -- competitive racing and a thrilling finish. This 500 set a record for different leaders and lead changes and had one of the most thrilling finishes in recent years. NASCAR's decisions over the winter to change the restrictor plates, open up the racing, allow bump drafting and to do its best to ensure a green-flag finish by giving the green-white-checkered rule three tries were all done with the people in the stands and those watching on television in mind. Take the decaying track problems out of the equation, which I realize is not easy, and Sunday's 500 might be remembered as one of the best in its 52-year history.

• Maybe Jamie McMurray's win shouldn't have been considered as much of a surprise as some believe. McMurray has shown he can be very adept at winning restrictor-plate races with Daytona and Talladega victories on his resume. With teammate Juan Pablo Montoya breaking through last year, the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team is quickly being considered a premier operation. McMurray proved Sunday that a second chance, like the one he got from team owner Chip Ganassi, who saw the driver leave his squad a few years ago --can be a career-changer.

• There were accidents on Sunday but not anything near the infamous "Big Ones" that have plagued plate races at Daytona and Talladega for years. It remains to be seen if that will continue when the series heads to Alabama and back to Daytona later this season, especially when the rear wing is replaced with a spoiler, but the 2010 restrictor-plate season is off to a relatively safe start.

• Tony Stewart's Nationwide Series win on Saturday had some believing the long-awaited Daytona 500 victory would follow. But Smoke suffered through a disappointing Sunday afternoon. After running near the front in the early going, he experienced mechanical gremlins and a poor handling car that teamed up to hand him a 22nd-place finish. Stewart has 15 career wins at Daytona but will have to wait another year to try and add the 500 to that list.

• Sunday was a tough day for Penske Racing as well, which saw two of its drivers (Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish Jr.) taken out of contention early with the race's first incident. Kurt Busch, who crashed two cars earlier in Speedweeks and was forced to a second backup for the 500, had one of the best cars in the field during the first half of the race but also suffered problems to end up finishing 23rd. Since having a 1-2 finish in the 2008 Daytona 500, Roger Penske has not fared well at "The World Center of Racing."

• He doesn't have the finish to show for the effort, ending up 19th in the final rundown, but Scott Speed has to feel good about his Daytona 500 performance. A call to stay out rather than pit for tires after the final red flag of the day had Speed in front of the field, and he didn't relent the top spot for several laps. It's a critical year for Speed and his spot on the Team Red Bull squad, which received a shot in the arm.