The 50th running of the Daytona 500, the start of the 2008 NASCAR Spring Cup season, is Sunday. Pre-race coverage on Fox starts at 2 p.m. ET. The green flag waves at 3:30 p.m. There are many reasons to tune in, besides what I imagine will be an amazing national anthem from Trisha Yearwood: Can Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, already on probation after trading paint in a practice session, play nice? Will Ashley Judd be on pit road to support her husband, Dario Franchitti? Just how many new commercials did Dale Earnhardt Jr. (pictured) shoot? But seriously, if you haven’t tuned into a race before, this is the one you want to watch. Some drivers would trade a championship just to win the Daytona 500 once. That’s why you get incredible last laps like last year’s, which literally had me up off the couch, screaming at willing Mark Martin to cross the finish line first. He didn’t. I still haven’t recovered completely.
I wonder which of the celebs NASCAR got to predict Sunday’s winner will be feeling that pain this year. Check out some of their picks after the jump.
Josh Kelley: "Carl Edwards. He’s going to win because of talent, style, and timing."
(Okay, I thought Kelley was wearing an Edwards hat when People caught him and wife Katherine Heigl moving into their new home.)
Chuck Norris: "Kevin Harvick because he’s the defending Daytona 500 champ, and he likes Mike Huckabee."
CSI:NY’s Hill Harper: "The Daytona 500, like the Presidential race, will be won by theteam that dominates the middle, runs the smartest race, avoids pileupsand comes on strong at the end. I’m going with Junior and Obama in’08!"
Debi Mazar(!): "There are so many great drivers that I can’t seem tochoose — Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr…. All area goodchoice, because of their obvious ability as fantastic racers!!! If Ihave to pick one, I will go with Gordon."
Jeff Probst: "Tony Stewart and the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota car are going to giveJoe Gibbs the greatest retirement gift he could ask for with a win atthe Daytona 500."
Mark Harmon: "Jimmie Johnson is my pick to win the big race. He is the champ andthe Daytona 500 is the ultimate race to win for any NASCAR driver."
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I’m heading into my 3rd season of NASCAR and I can say as a sports fan, the commercials are way better than anything they trotted out for the Super Bowl. BUT: you have to know a little about the drivers to enjoy them. I don’t have a prediction, but I would be surprised if a certain-kid-in-green went 3-for-3 and won the whole shebang.
I’m going with Denny to win it– if he can keep up the momentum he had in the Duels, he should be fine. He needs to stay up front and not do anything too crazy. Although, as we all know, Junior is the favored driver to win, so it wouldn’t really surprise me to see that either.
Seeing as we are ALL suffering from too-high gas prices, global warming and other man-made atrocities, why on earth do we need to watch grown men driving in circles for several hours?
I refuse to watch.
MARK MARTIN ALL THE WAY NOBODY HAS HIM IN THIER SIGHTS THIS YR WOULDNT SUPRIZE ME TO SEE HIM SNEAK IN THERE
What’s Franchitti doing in NASCAR anyway?!?
Anyone who can drive should be allowed to drive. It doesn’t matter if they are from open wheel or the dirt tracks from the south. Let the open wheeled drivers put up or shut up.
Birdgirl: The same can be said about watching men play football, baseball, hockey and basketball. Those sports waste more resources in one weekend of games than NASCAR does in a whole season. Get over yourself.
That said… go Jimmie Johnson! Second Daytona 500 win on the way to his third straight championship!
Dario Franchitti being in Nascar now is a huge relief to indycar fans everywhere, because now they’re rid of his annoying wife, Ashley Judd. Read all the reasons to hate her at http://www.themockdock.com and click on the I Hate Ashley Judd category.
he is handsome. I heard from my friends that he joined celebrities and wealthy club “Searching Millionaire dot com”. recently. I really expected that I could meet him there.
Junior 1st, Stewart 2nd, Labonte somewhere in the top 10 (he was my first favorite driver when I got into the sport 10 years ago). But I REEEEEALLY wanted Martin to win last year. Who could root against that?!
Junior’s in white now.
innterestin.
Birdgirl:Get over it. GO>>>> Junior
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