A: Three names roll right off the tongue: Earnhardt, Gordon and Michael Waltrip. The trio have accounted for six of the past nine victories in the Great American Race and have won 19 restrictor-plate races since 2001. All three have raced well during Speedweeks, and during the Budweiser Shootout former teammates Earnhardt and Waltrip still seemed willing to tag-team the opposition.
Aside from an Indianapolis 500 win, a Daytona 500 victory is the only void on Tony Stewart's sparkling résumé. The defending Cup champion has finished in the top seven in five of the past six races at Daytona, and he dominated last July (leading 151 of 160 laps) in his breakthrough win on the 2.5-mile oval.
For a guy who earned an unwanted reputation last year as a restrictor-plate-wreck magnet, Johnson has performed very well at Daytona (six top-10 finishes in the past seven races here).
