Ryan Newman Is King Of The Mountain

By Mark Young

Put it in the books race fans, the 2008 Daytona 500 has come and gone and we have some firsts to talk about.  The first 500 with the Car Of Today passed with, in my opinion, with flying colors.  The Good Year tires performed well under the microscope after concerns that blistering problems from the events leading up to the big race had people concerned.  The open-wheelers performed well also, keeping out of trouble and hopefully gaining the respect of the veterans.  We also had many past champions of previous 500's there to celebrate the 50th running of stock car's greatest race.  The media, including me (if you care to consider blogging the media), was predicting a Hendrick display of domination mixed in with moments of Toyota to spice things up.  Well thankfully Ryan Newman stole the show and won his first Daytona 500 and the first ever for Roger Penske as well.  For that Ryan Newman is King.

U WANT SOME?

I think we had a great race yesterday.  Kyle Busch showed that the Toyota teams will be strong along with Tony as did the Dodge teams.  I was very surprised to see the Hendrick teams, primarily Jimmie Johnson, have trouble staying up front.  Junior could have done better but nobody chose to draft with him.

I heard earlier today, and to quite a surprise I should ad, that Roger Penske is now the only car owner to win the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.  That is pretty darn impressive whether you are an open-wheel fan or not.

Ryan wouldn't have won the race were it not for his team mate Kurt Busch.  Kurt seemed just as excited and emotional about finishing second and pushing his team mate to victory as Ryan did at winning.  Now I know I have bashed Kurt pretty hard in the past and I am sure it will happen again if history repeats itself but my hat goes off to Kurt for putting his team first.

Reed Sorenson was fast again on Sunday.  He didn't win but I guarantee you that kid is going to win a race soon and contend for the Chase.

Props to Sam Hornish Jr. deserve some props as well for running up front all day and staying out of trouble.

But this post belongs to The Rocket Man Ryan Newman.  He flew under the radar during all of Speed Weeks and won the biggest stock car race of the year.  81 races is a long time between wins and it is hard to believe it was that long since the last time Ryan made it to Victory Lane.  South Bend, Indiana is five miles from my house so seeing a "home boy" win is big news here.  It is even bigger news to see a non-Hendrick team win at a plate race after they have been so strong in recent year.

Hats off to Ryan, enjoy your whirl-wind media tour this week, show up at California and prove them all it wasn't a fluke.