Preparation, luck the keys to winning the Daytona 500

	Dale Jarrett credits his car's handling, not horsepower, as the defining component for his victory at the 1993 Daytona 500. AP

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- What does it take to win the Daytona 500?

A lot depends on who you ask.

Two things are certain: The car must be excellently prepared and the driver has to have some good luck.

One without the other just won't do.

The Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt, was undoubtedly the best driver at feeling the air on a superspeedway, and won more events (34) than any other driver at the 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval; but he didn't win the 500 until his twentieth try.

Another Dale -- Jarrett that is -- won it three times. Now driving a Toyota for Michael Waltrip racing, he said, "it's about getting your car in the right place at the right time, which is near the end of this race. And understanding do you have to be leading, do you need to be second or third?"

Where you are on the closing laps is a key to a victory.

Many times Dale Earnhardt said that leading the Daytona 500 on the last lap was like being a "sitting duck," because the second-place car could pull off a sling-shot move to take the checkered flag.

Ever since NASCAR imposed a restrictor-plate rule robbing horsepower to keep the 3,400-pound cars under 200 mph a-lap, the result has been very equal cars. In the early years, a more powerful engine could make the difference -- allowing a driver to make the important pass for the lead and the win.

With the restrictor plate cutting horsepower almost in half, a driver had to learn how to better handle the draft, that vortex of air created by the car in front.

Ironically, Jarrett added that handling, not horsepower, now makes the difference.

"I don't know that it's (Daytona) changed that much because when I won in 1993, I won it because I had a better handling race car that day than Dale Earnhardt did. At the end of the race, his car had gotten so loose I was able to stay to stay wide open on the gas. It allowed me to get close to him, loosen him up, and drive underneath him. It was no different in 1996. A lot of the guys put on two tires and my crew chief, Todd Parrott, put four tires on me. That eventually won me the race. It's nice to have a combination of really good speed plus handling, but, if you give me a choice, I'm going to take the choice of handling. I can make the speed up by having a good handling race car."

Ray Evernham, crew chief for Jeff Gordon on two of his Daytona 500 wins and now owner of the Evernham Dodges, says "to me you have to be able to stay wide open and the bottom all day long. You have to have a good car, a good motor ... you have it all. The guy who can keep his foot all day and stay on the bottom, especially on this tire," is his idea of a 500 winner.

Andy Petree, once Dale Earnhardt's crew chief, a car owner and now a commentator for ESPN, explained that it takes "a driver with a lot of guts because it's the way you keep people behind you in your rear-view mirror. Lots of times, when I came down with Dale, we didn't have the best race car; we did have the best driver. It takes a driver that can work the rear-view mirror. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson does, and so does Dale Earnhardt, Jr."

Still there are upsets, Bill Davis, who owned the winning car driven by Ward Burton (2002) and now has a Toyota team, wraps it up in one word: survival. "The year before we won, we led the most laps, we were in great shape and got wrecked with 14 laps to go."

In 1990, Derrike Cope won the 500 in what been called the biggest upset in the 49-year history of the event. He was losing ground to Earnhardt on the last lap, when The Intimidator ran over some debris shredding a tire in turn 3 and slowed. Cope cruised to the biggest win of his career. He said, "it takes a great amount of effort on everybody's part, it's a real collective effort and you have some good fortune along with it. You really you have to make the right choices to minimize the risk throughout the race and be in a position to be right." He was.

Tim Brewer, another leading crew chief who never won the Daytona 500 and now a ESPN television commentator, emphasized the intangible of the race. "There's people (that) say there's no such thing as luck in racing, I don't know what planet they came from." He went on to point out the difference from blowing a tire or having a slow leak. Running out of gas past the start-finish line or running out of gas in turn 4 -- the same event happening in a different part of the track will make the difference. "The littlest thing will jump up and bite you and take you out of the event. Patience, luck and don't put yourself with bad driving."

So luck is a big factor. Or is it?

In the end it's a bit of everything. Darian Grubb was the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson's win last year; now he works with Casey Mears, who just joined Hendrick Motorsports. He said "every little effort, every little detail has to be put together. Every person on a team has to do their part. There's not much you can miss and have any chance of succeeding here. Stay out of trouble. Not have that mistake that takes you out of contention."

Preparation and luck, that's how to win the Daytona 500.