From the pomp and ceremonies during race day and the thrill of more than a week of pre-race activities to the surprise squeaker finish, the 50th running of the Daytona 500 marking the start of the 2008 NASCAR season did not disappoint.

Ryan Newman, the Purdue University engineering graduate from South Bend, Indiana won his first Daytona 500. Not only did he make his boss, Roger Penske proud, but he gave Penske his first Daytona 500 win.

Penske, (the captain) car owner of Newman’s #12 Alltel Dodge that drove into Victory Lane Sunday, has mastered the Indianapolis 500 numerous times, chalking up double-digit wins with his drivers, but the Daytona 500 has always eluded him.

Victory hasn’t been far off for Penske. Bobby Allison came close to a win in a Penske car in 1975. And Penske always thought veteran driver Rusty Wallace who retired two years ago would get the coveted win. Newman came in third in 1975. But, although the team tallied 82 poles, 57 victories in the past 927 races, they could not muster a win at Daytona International Speedway – until Sunday.

And the thing that made the win especially sweet for Penske was that when Newman crossed the finish line it was with the help from his teammate Kurt Busch, in Penske’s #2 Miller Lite Dodge.

The two blue Penske cars were unstoppable when it mattered most, in the last laps of the race, as they squeezed up to the top of the track like a two-car freight train, pushing past Tony Stewart’s #20 car. Stewart led the most laps in the race and was the expected favorite to win. It would have been his first Daytona 500 win as well, but it wasn’t to be.

Pre-week headlines talked about Stewart and his new-this-year teammate Kyle Busch, Kurt’s younger brother, who drive for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), the Hall of Fame coach of the Washington Redskins who retired this year to return to racing full time. JGR changed manufacturers this year, going from Chevrolet to Toyota. They were the team to watch this year. And, they delivered some impressive horse power, but didn’t deliver the victory. Instead Stewart had to settle for third.

Another hopeful was Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the most popular driver in NASCAR, who did win two races in preparation for Sunday’s big race – the Daytona 500. Earnhardt, Jr. won the Budweiser Shootout, last Saturday; a competition among the best of the fastest drivers who won the pole position during the 2007 season, along with past winners from previous Shootouts.

Earnhardt, Jr. won again on Thursday in the first of the Gatorade Duels – two 150-lap races that helped set the lineup grid for Sunday’s 500.

Fans cheered for their favorite driver as he took the checkered flag in both of those races.

Earnhardt, Jr. raced around the same racetrack that claimed the life of his famous father during the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 – a day that probably changed racing forever. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was honored Sunday during the pre-race ceremonies, since it was just ten years ago that he won his first Daytona 500. It would have meant a lot to his son to follow in those footsteps, but he had to settle for a 9th place finish.

Earnhardt, Jr. was a favorite to win as well, since his life-changing decision last summer to move to a new team — Hendrick Motor Sports — the team that claims Jimmy Johnson, the back-to-back champion for 2006 and 2007 as well as past champion Jeff Gordon.

Earnhardt, Jr. agonized over leaving Dale Earnhardt, Inc., the team built by his father and run by his step-mother Theresa. Many believed that Earnhardt, Sr. would have wanted his son to run the business, but when he died suddenly, it was without a will to spell it all out. Theresa Earnhardt called all the shots. So, in one of the biggest announcements of last year, Earnhardt, Jr. announced that he would leave DEI, trading his red #8 Budweiser car for a Hendrick car. He now drives the #88 National Guard car.

This is also the first full-time use by the new racecar, which has been called the Car of Tomorrow. Tomorrow is now today. The car was sanctioned by NASCAR for primarily safety purposes, but also to save money for car owners who had been building a different car for different race tracks on the NASCAR circuit. The car performance will be watched throughout the 2008 NASCAR season which has begun in earnest.