Nascar

After nearly winning the pole for today's NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave reporters a perfunctory recap of his qualifying lap and race car. Then NASCAR's most popular driver was asked about Mark Martin. Earnhardt took a deep breath, looked down at the microphone and let his affection flow for the 50-year-old veteran. "I'm real happy for him," Earnhardt said. "He was a bridesmaid for so many years, and so here's one guy that's pulling for him to win a championship this year because he's deserved it."

Can Kurt Busch finally steal some of his younger brother's thunder? For nearly two years, Kurt has toiled rather unsuccessfully in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series while Kyle has racked up wins, stirred controversy and bulldozed his way into the series' top echelon of drivers. But even as Kyle made more headlines with a historic Saturday in Fontana, winning NASCAR's Nationwide and truck series races on the same day, Kurt on Sunday quietly showed the form that earned him the Cup title five years ago.

NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow got mixed reviews in its debut at California Speedway on Thursday as Sprint Cup drivers tested the design for the Auto Club 500 later this month. The series' season opens Feb. 17 with the Daytona 500, followed by the Fontana race Feb. 24. California Speedway wasn't among the tracks where NASCAR began phasing in the Car of Tomorrow last year. But the car -- designed to be safer and reduce operating costs -- is now the series' only race car.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The season hasn't even started, and already there have been multi-car crashes, drivers banging their cars into each other in anger and officials threatening to levy penalties. NASCAR is back. In practice Friday for tonight's Budweiser Shootout, a 70-lap exhibition race around the Daytona International Speedway, nearly half of the 23 drivers were collected in two big crashes within minutes of each other.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson let new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoy the limelight for a few hours and then grabbed it back Sunday, winning the pole position for the Daytona 500. Johnson, the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion who won the 500 two years ago, fought off gusty winds to post a lap of 187.075 mph in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and secure the first starting spot.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Moments after Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line at Homestead-Miami Speedway last November to win his second consecutive NASCAR title, his crew erupted in celebration along pit road. But Johnson's car owner, Rick Hendrick, immediately went searching for another driver -- Jeff Gordon. Gordon, who also races for Hendrick, had just lost his chance for a fifth championship following a grueling 36-race battle with his teammate.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The 8 and 8 is now two for two, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is suddenly a favorite to win the 50th running of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt won the first of two 150-mile qualifying heats Thursday in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, five days after he won the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway. The other 60-lap heat was won by Denny Hamlin after he out-dueled teammate and two-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Sr. had won every type of stock-car race at Daytona International Speedway except its crown jewel, the Daytona 500. The seven-time champion had won the summer race, qualifying heats and exhibition races, but time and again the 500 eluded him. Until 1998. Earnhardt finally won the coveted race in his 20th attempt -- with a bit of luck.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Whether Tony Stewart took a swing at Kurt Busch at the start of Daytona 500 preparations still isn't clear, but this much is known: Busch got in the last shove, much to Ryan Newman's utter delight. Newman stormed past Stewart on the last lap Sunday to win the 50th running of the "Great American Race" after Busch ran up to the rear bumper of Newman's Dodge and, aerodynamically speaking, pushed him to the lead in front of a sold-out crowd of 190,000.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Sunday's Daytona 500 was not the way reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson hoped to begin defending his title. Johnson took the green flag on the pole, then dropped back into the field -- a tactic he often uses until he's ready to pounce in the closing laps. But there was no rebound this year. "We just lost track position and it was impossible to work through traffic," said the El Cajon native, who won the 2006 Daytona 500.