In the Fast Lane: Earnhardt top story of NASCAR's great week

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR nation is downright giddy.

Stock car racing's favorite son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., hasn't lost a race he's entered this week at Daytona International Speedway, improving to 2-for-2 with a win in Thursday's 150-mile qualifying race for Sunday's Daytona 500.

The debut of the sport's most popular driver with its most dominant team couldn't possibly be going any better.

"Up to this point, it's been great, more than we ever could have dreamed of as far as the success we're having," said Earnhardt, who drives the No. 88 AMP Energy-sponsored Chevrolet.

For that matter, the week couldn't have gone any better for the sanctioning body.

Its newest manufacturer, Toyota, won its first race with a 1-2 finish by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart in the second 150-mile qualifier.

Beloved veteran and three-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett, who is retiring after an abbreviated five-race slate this season, raced his way into the starting field, as did super long shots Kenny Wallace and John Andretti, who lamented, "I wish I had put money on me in Vegas."

And just for good measure, two of NASCAR's biggest names, former champs Stewart and Kurt Busch, have already tangled on track and off and this week found out they will start the season serving a six-race probation period.

No headline has been larger, however, than Earnhardt's showing.

His announcement last year that he was leaving the team formed by his late father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., was the story of the year. The move to seven-time champion Hendrick Motorsports unquestionably gave him the best shot of snapping a nearly two-year winless streak.

It also threatened to expose him. If he couldn't win at Hendrick -- whose four cars won 20 of 36 races in 2007 -- well, where could he? Earnhardt was up for the challenge.

"I'm just wondering what took him so long to get a win for us," team owner Rick Hendrick joked after Earnhardt's win in Sunday's Budweiser Shootout exhibition.

Purely on his own accord, Earnhrdt took the more difficult path and left the comfort level of driving for his dad's team. Even with a pair of Nationwide Series championships and 17 career Sprint Cup wins, including the 2004 Daytona 500, it's as if Earnhardt is still motivated to prove to others he is a champion and to prove to himself he is his own man.

The payoff stands to be enormous. He is the favorite to win Sunday's 50th running of the Daytona 500, the race that claimed his father's life in 2001, the race that stands to cement his place among the sport's best.

He is already that to millions of NASCAR fans who have made his souvenirs the best-selling in American motor sports. And he certainly was to the 100,000 fans in the Daytona grandstands Thursday whose cheers when he took the lead for good with eight laps remaining were louder than the pack of 850-horsepower cars roaring along on the track.

Normally pretty low-key and businesslike, Earnhardt has been enjoying these days. The smile hasn't left his face from last Sunday's trip to Victory Lane. His gait is noticeably lighter. He was even snickering on the radio while thanking his team on Thursday's cool-down lap.

He's happy. He's at peace with his decision.

"I think everybody knows if you go into something with a poor attitude, you typically have poor results, or you have a miserable time anyway," Earnhardt said. "That ain't saying that I go to all these tracks with a smile on my face. But I do enjoy being in Daytona. I have enjoyed this relationship."

He stopped short of acknowledging himself as the prerace favorite.

"It's a totally different race," he said. "I've got to do everything right. Team's got to have good stops. A lot of variables."

It is, he will concede, at least a good start.

WASHINGTON DRIVERS: Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw finished fourth in the second 150-mile qualifying race -- his best showing in any race at Daytona and good enough to earn him his best start (10th) in the Daytona 500.

"I was happy with the whole race, the pit stops -- our tires stayed on the car and our fuel mileage was great," said Kahne, who drives the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge. "We had a lot of power in our Dodge Charger and I thought it was the best car Gillett Evernham has ever brought to the track compared to the field."

Washington's other entrant, Greg Biffle of Vancouver, finished eighth in the same race, and the former 2004 Daytona 500 pole winner will start 18th in Sunday's 43-car field.

NEWCOMERS STRUGGLE: The open-wheel converts didn't fare too well in their first true race Thursday. Former Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve triggered a wreck that also wiped out reigning Indianapolis 500 champ Dario Franchitti. Former Champ Car star Patrick Carpentier wrecked because of a tire problem, so neither he nor Villeneuve will compete Sunday. Franchitti will start 40th, making the field based on 2007 owner points for his Ganassi racing team.

Three-time Indy Racing League champ Sam Hornish Jr. will start 19th on Sunday thanks to a ninth-place finish Thursday. Last year's top Sprint Cup rookie, Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2000 Indy 500 winner, was the best of the open-wheelers with a seventh-place run in the qualifier and a 15th-place start for Sunday.