Digital Brainwaves

Congratulations to Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon on winning their respective Gatorade Duel races at Daytona yesterday!

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Following the Duel, Jeff Gordon’s car was found to be lower than legal by over an inch during post-qualifier inspection. Citing it as a part failure, NASCAR punted the car to the rear of the field for the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but allowed the team to keep the win and money. Seems a perfectly reasonable compromise to me — it wasn’t their fault, but the car did technically fail.

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Watching the on-board video of Michael Waltrip turning Dale Earnhardt, Jr. into the infield, I’ve gotta think it was a miscommunication between Waltrip and his spotter. He moved toward the #8 car immediately after the spotter called “Little hole behind the 8,” which he must have took to mean that he was clear behind the 8. He wasn’t, and the rest is history.

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Oh, but for a working clutch.

James Hylton, 72, was attempting to make his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race since 1993, and his first Daytona 500 since 1983. Running 8th (and in position to transfer to Sunday’s race) with 10 laps to go in his Duel, a late caution came out, and Hylton fried his clutch on the resulting restart, finishing 23rd and failing to qualify for the 500.

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I was quite impressed to see both Michael Waltrip’s Toyota and Juan Pablo Montoya in his Dodge each lead for a few laps. I’m not sure yet about the Toyota teams, but JPM is definitely going to go places in NASCAR.

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Finally, some celebrity picks for this weekend’s race, courtesy of Sports Illustrated’s SI.com.

The Daytona 500 is on FOX this Sunday at 2PM EST.