Cale Yarborough

Bill Elliott managed to avoid disaster time and again Sunday on the way to a $1 million victory in the Southern 500 Grand National stock car race. Elliott, driving his Ford Thunderbird, added an unprecedented $1 million bonus to the first-place money of $53,725 to run his season earnings to $1,857,243, an all-time auto racing record. The 29-year-old driver did it when all three of his strongest competitors went up in smoke during the race.

Mitt Romney, in a tight race against Rick Santorum for next week's Michigan primary, took a side trip from Michigan campaigning to Daytona Beach, Fla., to attend the 54 th running of the premier stock-car racing event of the season, the Daytona 500. It's a regular pilgrimage for both past presidents and presidential contenders trying to solidify their standing with NASCAR dads, the bloc of patriotic, blue-collar voters with a history of voting Republican....

Trevor Bayne may be NASCAR's newest sensation after the 20-year-old's improbable Daytona 500 win, but NASCAR's original "Wonderboy" ? Jeff Gordon, who was Bayne's boyhood hero ? drove back into the spotlight Sunday after a long absence. Gordon ran down Kyle Busch and passed him with eight laps left to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, ending a 66-race winless streak. It's the second time this one-mile track just west of Phoenix has been memorable for Gordon, a four-time Series champion.

Cale Yarborough held off Harry Gant by less than half a car length to win round 3 of the Budweiser International Race of Champions Saturday at Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Ala. Yarborough, who came from the No. 7 starting position, took the lead for good on lap 9 of the 100.08-mile race and grabbed the lead in the 10th International Race of Champions series. Bill Elliott took third, and Darrell Waltrip finished fourth.

Mitt Romney, in a tight race against Rick Santorum for next week's Michigan primary, took a side trip from Michigan campaigning to Daytona Beach, Fla., to attend the 54 th running of the premier stock-car racing event of the season, the Daytona 500. It's a regular pilgrimage for both past presidents and presidential contenders trying to solidify their standing with NASCAR dads, the bloc of patriotic, blue-collar voters with a history of voting Republican....

Many drivers have dominated a 125-mile qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway and faltered three days later in the Daytona 500. In fact, only twice in the last 10 years has a 125 winner gone on to win the 500. But no one ever dominated a qualifier the way Bill Elliott did Thursday. Elliott finished the 50 laps more than two miles ahead of Darrell Waltrip after clipping off laps of 200-plus m.p.h. in a Ford Thunderbird prepared by his brother, Ernie.

For six years, the fastest cars at Daytona International Speedway for stock car racing's No. 1 event, the Daytona 500, have been Chevrolets prepared by Waddell Wilson. Cale Yarborough won the last two Daytona 500s in one. This year there will be a change. The cars Wilson is preparing for Yarborough are Ford Thunderbirds. Last September, team owner Harry Ranier announced a switch from General Motors to Ford because, it was reported, he thought Chevrolet did not appreciate the team's performances.

Trevor Bayne may be NASCAR's newest sensation after the 20-year-old's improbable Daytona 500 win, but NASCAR's original "Wonderboy" ? Jeff Gordon, who was Bayne's boyhood hero ? drove back into the spotlight Sunday after a long absence. Gordon ran down Kyle Busch and passed him with eight laps left to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, ending a 66-race winless streak. It's the second time this one-mile track just west of Phoenix has been memorable for Gordon, a four-time Series champion.

Neither the pain from Bill Elliott's recently broken leg nor anyone else in the field could keep him from winning Sunday's Coca-Cola 500 Grand National stock car race. "The leg bothered me from 150 laps on," Elliott said. "I couldn't hardly keep it up and it was real hard to mash the brake and the clutch. But I just hung on." Elliott's Ford Thunderbird inherited the lead 54 laps from the end of the 328-lap race at Atlanta International Raceway when the engine in Cale Yarborough's Ford blew.

Cale Yarborough held off Harry Gant by less than half a car length to win round 3 of the Budweiser International Race of Champions Saturday at Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Ala. Yarborough, who came from the No. 7 starting position, took the lead for good on lap 9 of the 100.08-mile race and grabbed the lead in the 10th International Race of Champions series. Bill Elliott took third, and Darrell Waltrip finished fourth.

Bill Elliott managed to avoid disaster time and again Sunday on the way to a $1 million victory in the Southern 500 Grand National stock car race. Elliott, driving his Ford Thunderbird, added an unprecedented $1 million bonus to the first-place money of $53,725 to run his season earnings to $1,857,243, an all-time auto racing record. The 29-year-old driver did it when all three of his strongest competitors went up in smoke during the race.

Many drivers have dominated a 125-mile qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway and faltered three days later in the Daytona 500. In fact, only twice in the last 10 years has a 125 winner gone on to win the 500. But no one ever dominated a qualifier the way Bill Elliott did Thursday. Elliott finished the 50 laps more than two miles ahead of Darrell Waltrip after clipping off laps of 200-plus m.p.h. in a Ford Thunderbird prepared by his brother, Ernie.

For six years, the fastest cars at Daytona International Speedway for stock car racing's No. 1 event, the Daytona 500, have been Chevrolets prepared by Waddell Wilson. Cale Yarborough won the last two Daytona 500s in one. This year there will be a change. The cars Wilson is preparing for Yarborough are Ford Thunderbirds. Last September, team owner Harry Ranier announced a switch from General Motors to Ford because, it was reported, he thought Chevrolet did not appreciate the team's performances.

Junior Johnson, a Hall of Fame stock car driver and successful car owner, has been granted a presidential pardon for a moonshining conviction in 1956. Johnson, 54, a lifelong resident of nearby Wilkes County in the Brushy Mountains, was convicted of manufacturing non-tax-paid whiskey after being arrested at his father's still. He served 11 months, until October, 1957, in the federal penitentiary in Chillicothe, Ohio. "I filed a request for a pardon just over five years ago," Johnson said.

Kurt Busch won the year-end Nextel Cup championship Sunday. A look at the previous NASCAR champions by year: * 2003...Matt Kenseth * 2002...Tony Stewart * 2001...Jeff Gordon * 2000...Bobby Labonte * 1999...Dale Jarrett * 1998...Jeff Gordon * 1997...Jeff Gordon * 1996...Terry Labonte * 1995...Jeff Gordon * 1994...Dale Earnhardt * 1993...Dale Earnhardt * 1992...Alan Kulwicki * 1991...Dale Earnhardt * 1990...Dale Earnhardt * 1989...Rusty Wallace * 1988...Bill Elliott * 1987...Dale Earnhardt * 1986.