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| | Friday, February 25 | |||||||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||||||
One race down and 33 more to go, and both Jarrett and Benson figured prominently in the post-Daytona picture. Jarrett's win was one for ages. Of course, every Daytona 500 victory is one for the ages. But this one got him on with Regis and Kathy Lee! While the race will blend away with time, the work that got Jarrett to Victory Lane should standout, not only throughout this season, but for years to come.
All of that was made possible by money. It took big money to get the right people to Daytona; have the facilities to watch the broadcast, tape it, and look at any close-up shots over and over again. Then there's the size of some of these "super" teams. Yates not only had the means to get his people to Daytona, but he also had people that could do the job. Then, he had more people just waiting to do their jobs in the pits during the race. This allowed the guys in the garage to wear themselves out around the clock and not worry about doing more work once the race began. Whew. Let me catch my breath. But, it didn't come down to just money. It came down to talent, dedication -- even the professional commitment to leave your daughter's 10th birthday party because an entire organization was counting on you to save the day. It came down to Parrott making the decision to repair the damage and stay on the pole rather than race a proven back-up car from the back of the field. Then it came down to a new pit crew -- snagged from a competitor -- to pit the car. How would you like to be one of the guys on that 88 pit crew? No pressure there. The No. 88 had only won the pole, was fast in practice, ran great in the Twin 125 qualifying race, and had been repaired by a commando team of fabricators dragged from their homes on a peaceful Saturday to get up at 4 a.m. after about four hours of sleep to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. And the result was a car that might win the Daytona 500 -- if the new pit crew guys, already carrying a bull's eye on their back because some people down like the free-enterprise system -- don't blow it on pit road. You following all this? "There really wasn't a lot of pressure on us," said jackman Barry Muse from Victory Lane with a great deal of sincerity. I didn't believe it. Neither did he. But the pit crew, like the fab crew, like the crew that worked on the car at the track for 10 days, did their job to perfection.There might have been a better story at Daytona, but there wasn't a better team. Benson winning the 500? Now THAT would've been a story. This is a team that has been more flash than finish in the past year or so. But it almost stole the glass driving shoe. If Benson had won the 500, it might have actually put the team behind the 8-ball, because if you win the race, you lose your car. And I'm not sure those guys at Tyler Jet Motorsports have another restrictor plate car ready! But, I'll tell you this, crew chief James Ince and company would've gladly built another one! Benson's team, now sponsored by Lycos.com, is not unlike Jarrett's. They may not be as big, or have the resources -- they leased their Daytona motor from Hendrick instead of building them like Yates -- but the 10 team showed it has the same kind of commitment and dedication as the 88 bunch. During Speedweeks, the 10 team spent nine days quietly tucked away in an uncomfortable and inconvenient space in the cramped east side of the Daytona International Speedway garage. The crew wore generic white shirts, working on their generic white car, hoping against hope they would be in the lead on Sunday when somebody waved that generic white flag. IT ALMOST HAPPENED!And not because a sponsor jumped on board at the last minute and poured some financial fuel into the team. It almost happened because of the people that fueled that team. Heading to Daytona, there weren't many stories as dissimilar as Dale Jarrett and Johnny Benson. Heading to Rockingham, we now know how similar their stories really are. Both had a great Daytona 500, thanks to the people around them.
Jarrett's team overcame bad luck and took the red, white and blue colors back to Victory Lane. Benson's team overcame long odds to show that sometimes the good guys still wear white. | ALSO SEE Yocum: Time to start digging out of a hole Kernan: Who'll have the 'force' this weekend Another dynamic duo forming in 88 garage Benson brings Daytona momentum to The Rock Dura Lube 400 Breakdown McReynolds: No time to dwell on Daytona Furr: Tempers short on short track  | |||||||||
