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Wednesday, February 12, 2003

By Chris Dolack, Special to the Post-Gazette

On Sunday, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series embarks on its nearly yearlong tour of racetracks across the country. Forty-three drivers will bump, bang and, well, probably call each other some unpleasant names all in pursuit of a championship and the more than $4 million that goes with it.

History has shown that a win Sunday is not necessarily a harbinger of good things to come. But ask any driver about winning Daytona and he'll take his chances. (Terry Renna, Associated Press) Race: Daytona 500 When: Noon Sunday TV: WPGH Pole: Jeff Green Related information Economy could put a dent into NASCAR sponsorships Notebook: Five-car crash wrecks practice 2003 Winston Cup Schedule Get Your Scorecards: Drivers who have changed

Since Tony Stewart clinched his first series title in November, teams have reloaded in their quests to conquer this grueling 36-race marathon. Sunday in Daytona Beach, Fla., all that off-season work will earn one driver the most coveted single-event prize in stock car racing -- a Daytona 500 championship.

Who will win the event, which has become known as NASCAR's Super Bowl, is heavily debated. What is not open to discussion is how fruitless it is to win the Great American Race and still seek a Winston Cup title. Since 1980, only Jeff Gordon has started the racing season with a Daytona 500 victory and ended it as the series champion. He accomplished the feat in 1997.

Last season, Stewart completed only two laps because of engine failure and finished the race in last place. He still managed to climb to the top of the final standings while the Daytona winner, Ward Burton, failed to finish a race in the top five again until midsummer, sputtering to 25th place in the final points standings.

So who will be the unlucky one to leave Daytona International Speedway a winner this year? Fox Chapel's Chip Ganassi, one of the most successful owners in auto racing, believes a series of rules changes and new car bodies that make the Chevys, Dodges, Fords and Pontiacs conform to a common template might result in a Victory Lane surprise.

"I think the Daytona 500 is going to be a big jump ball," said Ganassi, who fields Dodge Intrepids for two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin as well as rookies Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears. "Everyone's still trying to figure out what the package is. A lot of guys are going to throw a lot of things against the wall, and some guys are going to get it to stick and some guys aren't."

Finding the right package -- a combination of tires, chassis setup and aerodynamics -- is crucial because parity has hit the Winston Cup garage harder than a NASCAR penalty. The slightest adjustment on the 31 degrees of banking at the 2.5-mile high-speed racetrack can be the difference between finishing first or 31st.

In NASCAR's ongoing struggle to achieve equality among teams, the only noticeable difference between car makes this year will be the front and rear valances. Factor in the use of horsepower-limiting restrictor plates on superspeedways, and trying to pick a winner at Daytona is as difficult as following the detours through Downtown road construction. The way a car is prepared by the team will have more bearing on how it performs during the race than anything its driver might do.

After Daytona, when the series heads to Rockingham, N.C., Las Vegas and then Atlanta, is when the drivers take over.

Last year, the drivers who found themselves up front the most became known as the "young guns" by the end of the season. Rookies Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson kept pressure on Marlin, who led the points standings for 25 weeks before finally giving in to back injuries, the result of crashes in September at Richmond International Raceway and Kansas Speedway.

While Marlin missed the final two months of the schedule, second-year driver Kurt Busch made a run at Stewart, winning three of the final five races to establish himself as Roush Racing's best shot at a title this season.

Ganassi sees the transformation in NASCAR, where older drivers are having trouble keeping pace with the twenty-somethings, but still believes Marlin, 45, can challenge for a championship.

Ganassi replaced driver Jimmy Spencer, who turns 46 Feb. 15, with a couple of his young guns just in case. His 2003 roster includes McMurray, 26, who replaced the injured Marlin and put his car in Victory Lane at Lowe's Motor Speedway in the process, and Mears, 24, the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears.

"I think Marlin has as good a shot as anybody this year, so we're going to find out about all this hype about the young guns," Ganassi said. "I think NASCAR is in a period of transition again where you've got a bunch of young guys coming in like Johnson and Busch and McMurray, of course. These guys are somewhat established already, and you've still got some new guys coming in and pushing out some of the older guys. There aren't the opportunities there once were for guys like Spencer.

"I can't say if those guys feel any pressure or not, but it's obvious guys like Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin have more years behind them than they do in front of them."

While McMurray and Mears have a lot to prove in Winston Cup racing, they might feel some relief from being chosen by Ganassi, who has an uncanny ability to get the most out of drivers other teams pass over. As an owner in CART, Ganassi plucked Alex Zanardi from an unproductive Formula One career and turned him into a two-time champion, not to mention a multimillionaire. After Zanardi decided to take another shot at Formula One, Ganassi replaced him with Juan Pablo Montoya, who went on to win a championship and the Indianapolis 500.

Ganassi could be on a similar path with McMurray. Despite driving in the truck and Busch series for two years, McMurray had never won a race in one of NASCAR's top divisions. It took him all of two races in Marlin's car to win and seal the deal to drive for Ganassi in 2003.

As for his knack at putting unproven drivers into winning situations, Ganassi believes success ultimately depends on the driver.

"There are a lot of guys out there that just aren't given opportunities," he said. "If they get an opportunity, some guys take advantage of it and some guys don't. When we have a new driver come along, we make every possible effort in every possible area to give him every single thing he needs. Not a lot of employees in any profession are given that opportunity, so I like to think that's what we focus on. Having grown up here in Pittsburgh, I believe it doesn't take that much more effort to do it right than it does to just do it. We push these guys, but I like to think we push them in a safe manner."

In only two full seasons, Ganassi has pushed his NASCAR operation into position to contend for a championship. That alone is an amazing accomplishment, considering he raced Indy cars as a driver and owned only open-wheel teams until he bought a majority share of Felix Sabates' NASCAR team in the middle of 2000. But being in position to contend and actually doing it are very different.

"We wanted to come into 2002 and make sure 2001 wasn't a fluke. In 2001 we went from 19th to third [in points]. We were hoping to carry that momentum into 2002 and we did. But it's somewhat of an empty feeling because we didn't win the championship, but we didn't lose it either. We feel like we were sort of taken out of the competition because of Marlin's injury. During 2002, the whole team was getting stronger and stronger and more solid. I'm looking for big things out of them this year."

That could mean trouble for the competition.