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Any NASCAR Sprint Cup driver or crew chief will tell you pretty much the same thing about the Daytona 500, It’s not an accurate predictor of what’s to come in the year. Daytona has its own unique challenges being a restrictor-plate race, and tracks like Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway are a better gauge of performance, of who’s fast, who isn’t and who is capable of winning.

No driver, especially those with championship hopes, wants to start the year with a bad race at Daytona. Last year, for example, Mark Martin suffered through two engine failures and a catastrophic tire explosion in the first four races and spent the next 22 races furiously digging out from 34th in points to get back in the top 12 in points.

Several of the top drivers in the Cup series had a disappointing Daytona 500, so they’ll be looking to rebound in a big way Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California, with the running of the Auto Club 500.

  

Six of the 12 drivers who qualified for the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2009 finished outside the top 20 in the Daytona 500: Tony Stewart (22nd), Kurt Busch (23rd), Jeff Gordon (26th), Kasey Kahne (30th), Ryan Newman (34th) and Jimmie Johnson (35th). Certainly, it isn’t panic time for any of them by a long shot.

“It sucks,” Johnson said of his Daytona 500, which ended with a broken rear axle. “But it’s a long season and we came out of here last year with a crashed race car and still came back. We have a little work ahead of us.”

“Daytona was very disappointing – more so than I think a lot of people realize,” said Newman, Stewart’s teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing. “We were just biding our time in the back of the field and, with 10 laps or so to go, we decided it was time to make our move. I don’t really know what happened, but I was the recipient of it. We were seven laps from the end of the race, well before the green-white-checker, and we ended up with a destroyed race car. It was just very disappointing. We wanted to come out of the box strong at Daytona, but we walked away with a 34th-place finish. We had good cars but we didn’t get the finish we wanted.”

Gordon, who finished second at both ACS races last year, is ready for better days, too.

“I’m hoping we can run better and get better as the season goes on,” said Gordon, “I certainly feel that we have that capability. Last year, I think we were the best team during the first 10 races, but we flattened out. We’re looking at the championship differently this year. We want to start the season off right, but we want to build and get better as the season goes along. “And show our strengths at the right time — not only for winning races, but battling for the championship.”

Speed TV contributed to this report.

He has always been a fan favorite and for good reason, he is such a low key mellow guy but when it comes to racing he is all or nothing.

Joe Nemechek and Bill Elliott know what it’s like to miss the Daytona 500, so it was no surprise how happy they were on Saturday after making the field for next Sunday’s Great American Race.

Elliott, Nemechek and Scott Speed were the three fastest drivers not already guaranteed a starting spot in Saturday’s qualifying, and thus they will take the green flag Feb. 14 at Daytona International Speedway.

With 35 drivers locked in based on 2009 owner points, the 43-car field is filled by two spots from each of the two 150-mile qualifying races next Thursday and then three spots from the time trials, with a final spot available to a past champion or the next fastest on speed.

Bobby Labonte can use a past champion’s provisional, if needed. That meant that three drivers could breathe easier after qualifying on Saturday. Elliott, and Nemechek were fast enough that if they don’t run well Thursday in the qualifying races, they can rely on their time-trial speeds for spots in the 500.

Elliott, who was fourth-fastest at 190.573 mph, wasn’t much of a surprise. He did the same thing a year ago after missing the 2008 race.

“It’s still always nerve-wracking because when you roll in here it’s one thing, but once you do everything you’ve got to do [through inspection] and then you leave pit road on your qualifying run, it’s a whole different world,” Elliott said. “Two years ago there’s no comparison [in this program]. Last year, [crew chief David] Hyder started turning things around about this time and I feel like last season was a tribute to the Wood Brothers and the way their team should be.”

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This was supposed to be the year that Jimmie Johnson got beat. Three consecutive championships on NASCAR’s premier series, something only one other man had ever done, was no doubt historic. But four in a row? Let’s not get crazy. Not with Carl Edwards coming off a nine-win season. Not with Kyle Busch hitting his prime. Not with competition tightening. There were simply too many obstacles, too many reasons for the law of averages to take its toll.

Johnson’s too nice of a guy to say it outright, so his actions said it for him: underestimate the No. 48 team, and they’ll eat you alive.

Instead, this became the year when we all learned never to discount a driver who’s already put himself on the short list of the best ever to wheel a stock car. Remember that short-sighted preseason media poll that predicted Edwards to win the title? Didn’t think so. The end result was Johnson, seizing the sport by the throat, winning his most recent title by his largest point margin, so dominating the Cup tour that by the end of the year his competitors’ only hope seemed to be early retirement.

Johnson’s too nice of a guy to say it outright, so his actions said it for him: underestimate the No. 48 team, and they’ll eat you alive. Don’t read too much into a disappointing 31st-place run in the Daytona 500, another struggle at Las Vegas, or continued goose eggs in the win column at Bristol or the road courses. Don’t buy into conspiracy theories about tire testing or tolerance warnings. Don’t get caught up in the fact that he didn’t take the points lead until only six races remained, later than he ever has in this unprecedented run of championships.

Because in the end they’re going to be there, and they’re going to be better than anybody, just as they were in 2009. After all, so many indicators seemed to point in the same direction — that the No. 48 team was fallible. Sixth in points after first Richmond! Shortcomings on fuel-mileage tracks! And yet, they won four times in the Chase, weathered the first genuine playoff crisis they’d faced in more than three years with typical aplomb, and ran away with a title that was never really in doubt. The end result was another typical Johnson season, with seven wins at strongholds like Martinsville, Dover, Indianapolis and Fontana, and a finishing kick that left the competition gasping for air.

And in the end, a lesson. Whatever yearning there may be in the grandstands or the media center for a new champion should not get in the way of reality. The No. 48 team is more in tune now than at any other point in its existence. Other teams in the garage area are truly confounded by how to confront the juggernaut before them. Other drivers are in awe of Johnson and what he’s done. The distance between him and the rest of the field is wider than it’s ever been. Who do you think will be picked to win the championship in the media preseason poll next year?

Johnson played it cautious throughout most of the year, publicly talking about the race at hand and not the historical ramifications of a possible unprecedented fourth consecutive title. But when the championship was finally secured at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he let it all out. “History, boys!” he screamed on the radio. “No one ever. Ever!” The previous year, he had tied Cale Yarborough’s 30-year-old mark of three consecutive titles. Now, he stood alone, and finally, he could allow himself to enjoy it.

Johnson’s run has been defined by almost mistake-free performances that gradually beat down his competition. So how shocking it was at Texas, the third-to-last race of the season, to see him bouncing off the inside wall with serious damage only two laps into the race. The result was a 38th-place finish, his worst in the Chase since Talladega in 2006, and 111 points cut from his lead. Although he won the next week at Phoenix, Johnson fumed about the incident for days. He’s probably still fuming about it. Maybe that’s one reason he’s so hard to beat.