FanHouse Daytona 500

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CONCORD, N.C. - No, there's no racing at Florida's Daytona International Speedway this weekend, but that hasn't stopped the rain from putting the home of the Daytona 500 in the spotlight.

As of Friday morning, the National Weather Service monitoring station at the Daytona International Airport (which sits just outside the 2.5-mile track's backstretch) had recorded some 18.54 inches of rain in the month, with over 17 inches of that coming in the last few days.

The substantial precipitation has created some amazing sights at the track as the infield lake has flooded onto the backstretch and the infield access tunnels have been nearly filled to their brim.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the talk of the Daytona 500 once again.

Only this time it was all about a punt, not a pass.

Contact between his Chevy and Brian Vickers' Toyota on Lap 125 took out eight other cars -- including the race leader -- and left some of his competitors questioning the fairness of how NASCAR doles out penalties.

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More Coverage: Daytona 500 Results | Kenseth Wins | Junior Triggers Crash

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The cars are in motion, and Geoffrey Miller is in Daytona, following all of the action of the Daytona 500.

You might not be getting the full live experience, the roar of the engines, the drama in the air, but you can follow Geoffrey's updates live from the race with FanHouse's Twitter (after the jump) and be closer to the track than anywhere else on the Internet. Lead changes, wrecks, weird sights in the stands -- none of it is off-limits for Geoffrey.

Wow. Who knew Saturday's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway would be the last--at least for the next 10 years?

Move over Pepsi, your 49 years are up. It's time for Coke to step up to the plate and show NASCAR what it's made of:

Coca-Cola has bumped Pepsi out of racing's Daytona 500 as the Atlanta-based beverage company puts the pedal to the metal on its NASCAR marketing.

In a deal expected to be announced today, Coke has bought pouring and marketing rights at Daytona International Speedway and nine other tracks owned by International Speedway Corp.

By 2011, Coke will have all but five tracks that host NASCAR's elite Nextel Cup Series, which will be renamed the Sprint Cup next year.

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Coke and International Speedway Corp. declined to provide financial terms.

A Pepsi spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Woohoo! Ca'ching!

Pepsi will apparently still sponsor victory lane at ISC owned speedways, which means Gatorade still rules and Coke's Powerade is still shut out.

And seriously? California Speedway has to be one of the only two ISC Pepsi hold outs? Ah well ... life could be worse. I'll still bring my own Diet Coke and a smile.

There were fines.

Penalties.

DNQs.

Embarassment.

The highlight--if you can call it that--was Dave Blaney's 2nd place finish.

Michael Waltrip, who started his season down 100 points, may or may not have come out of the weekend ahead, depending on whose standings you trust more:

NASCAR.com - 30th, 73 points
FOX Sports - 42rd, -27 points

What's in store for Cali?

Mountain climbing.

"Toyota Motor Sales head office is right there, and we're going to have some executives and associates at the race. But like Daytona, it's another race and there are 34 more this year and hundreds more that we will be competing in over the next several years. I think everyone understands the mountain we have to climb and the thing that we've said is that the most important thing is for everyone to keep improving; that is one of the fundamental characteristics of Toyota as a company. This process fits our company perfectly and if we as a company and TRD can keep improving the product and if the teams we're associated with can keep improving their on-track performance, then everybody's happy."

Good thing there's no rule about finishing with all four wheels on the ground.

Clint Bowyer's late-race tumble and NASCAR's subsequent disregard for his safety has fans calling a foul against NASCAR for not throwing the caution on the last lap of yesterday's Daytona 500.

Bowyer:

"We had a good Jack Daniel's Chevrolet but I just kept making mistakes. I made a mistake on pit road and got us a lap down but hey how about Kevin Harvick winning the race! We were just racing hard. Everybody was going for it. It's the Daytona 500. I thought I was clear and then somebody clipped me and turned us over. The wreck was fairly uneventful until I started getting showered with mud when I was sliding through the grass. I flipped over and then here comes the mud. I'm just mad we wrecked our race car and didn't finish better than 18th. All things considered, we'll take it and move on to California."

Few things awe people more than the act of speed. I sit here writing this while the Daytona 500 plays out on my television screen, cars ripping across asphalt at nearly 200 miles an hour. The main event at the Olympic games is the 100 meter dash. In college football, our fastest players have quite often been amongst the most celebrated.

Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson came along and spent three seasons simply running right by defenders. They gave way to Ted Ginn who capped his career with a kick return touchdown that was Ohio State's lone highlight in January's BCS Championship Game.

But now that those guys are gone, who is left to fill the void as captivating speedster?

For players already on college rosters, Clemson has two of the zoom zoomiest around in receiver/returner Jacoby Ford and tailback CJ Spiller, both sophomores. There are other players out there yet to make their mark and we'll be on the lookout for them. One such burner is Jamere Holland, a redshirt freshman receiver at USC who clocked somewhere in the 10.3 range in the 100 meters in high school.

Florida sophomore receiver Percy Harvin is also a superb choice, weaving expertly through defenses any time he so much as has a step on a defender. West Virginia junior tailback Steve Slaton has excellent speed and is a worthy candidate. Junior Arkansas tailback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden is an obvious selection here. Finally, there is junior Texas tailback Jamaal Charles who ran somewhere in the 10.2 range in high school and owns several long touchdown runs to his name.

Among incoming recruits, many people have made comparisons between Louisiana's Joe McKnight (a USC signee) and Reggie Bush, but McKnight is probably a step slower with a personal best of 10.71. There are some reports of him having clocked a 10.4, but I have yet to find anything legitimate and official backing that up. He's definitely a playmaker but I'm not sure he's quite in that class of guy who simply runs right by college defenders as Peterson and Bush and Ginn were able to do.

My nominee among this year's incoming freshmen to fill the speed vacuum would be tailback Jahvid Best, a 10.41 runner who has signed with California.

Noble reader: now that you've seen my list, I ask you now who else should be under consideration as an impact player with awe-inspiring speed? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Daytona Live Blog: Pre-race | Lap 1-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | Victory Lane

Kevin Harvick leads only the last lap to win his first Daytona 500--and sweeps the weekend--in the late Dale Earnhardt's former car on the 6th anniversary of his death.

Let the outrageous conspiracy theories begin. Oh, wait. They already have.

Of course it's a conspiracy. And if NASCAR had thrown the caution, it would still be a conspiracy--to rob fans of a green flag finish, or to rob Mark Martin of a 500 win or [insert your own random conspiracy theory here].

Daytona 500 Results | Nextel Cup Standings (Please standby while NASCAR.com gets them ready)

More stats
Best-finishing rookie: tallglassofmilk's pick, David Ragan in 5th. He was in 10th at the green-white checkers and was going to be very happy if he held on to that. Too bad for the others. He'll take it.

Toyota's top spot was 23rd, compliments of Dale Jarrett in Michael Waltrip Racing's #44.

Daytona Live Blog: Pre-race | Lap 1-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | Victory Lane

Lap 151: New leader: Tony Stewart.

Lap 154: Crash in turn 4. Leader Tony Stewart got loose and Kurt Busch got in the back of him. From the looks of it, the #20 is going to the garage to retire. The #2 is in the garage for repairs.

Lap 156: Pit stops. New leader: Martin Truex Jr.

Lap 163: Interview with a thinner Tony Stewart. Kurt Busch has taken the blame, Tony's bummed. Still smiling and excited about the season.

Lap 170: Matt Kenseth becomes the 8th leader of the day.

Lap 174: Caution for crash. Jimmie Johnson gets loose, collects several cars including Denny Hamlin, Tony Raines, Jeff Green and David Reutimann.

Lap 176: Cars hit pit road.

Lap 179: All four cars involved in the crash have gone to the garage. Ryan Newman is in the garage with possible engine trouble. Mark Martin is the leader following pit stops.

Lap 180: Green flag. Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, Reed Sorenson, Johnny Sauter and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the leaders.

Lap 183: Jimmie Johnson starts the year off right taking responsibility for his own error.

Lap ??: I hate it when the caution comes out during commercial. Speaking of which, where are all the new commercials?

10 to go: Green flag. Top 5: Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler

In car moment
Dale Jr: "I wanna say hi to my mama, the DMP league and all the soldiers overseas."

6 to go: Kyle Busch is moving in on Mark Martin.

Lap 196: Jamie McMurray brings out the caution, collecting Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ricky Rudd. From the looks of it the #8 is finito - the hood is in the windshield and he can't see.

3 to go: Red flag. Welcome back to racing.

Top 5: Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, David Gilliland, Elliott Sadler

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

It would be pretty awesome if Mark Martin won his first Daytona 500, even if it isn't for Roush. And what a way for Ginn to start off the year. I hope Kyle can't catch him on the restart.

Chances are good for whoever wins that it will be their first trip to Daytona 500 victory lane--none of the drivers in the top 10 positions have ever won.

It was only a matter of time before Kyle took himself and others out. Mark Martin got loose, got off the gas and Kevin Harvick lead the only lap that counts in a photo finish for a Daytona sweep. And the cars piled up behind them.

Stay tuned for a post race wrap up.

Daytona Live Blog: Pre-race | Lap 1-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | Victory Lane

Lap 101: Kurt Busch maintains the lead, with baby brother in his rear view. The last time brothers finished 1 and 2 was the 1999 Las Vegas 400--Jeff Burton with Ward behind him.

Lap 106: Kevin Harvick gets loose and almost takes out David Stremme.

Lap 117: Denny Hamlin takes Kyle Busch for the #2 spot. By lap 125 Kyle has fallen to 10th.

Lap 126: Green flag pit stops. 39 cars remain on the lead lap.

Lap 131: Pit stops complete. Restart order: Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Ricky Rudd, Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter. Ryan Newman led a lap during the pit cycle.

Lap 137: Polesitter David Gilliland gets lapped in the 41st position. Mike Wallace, Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltip have also fallen off the lead lap.

Lap 148: Jeff Gordon is the fastest car on the track despite being in the 27th position.