Petty enjoys yet another Daytona

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DAYTONA, Fla. -- As the red flag waved over Sunday's Daytona 500, two of the best stock car racers of our time avoided the rain by huddling under the same umbrella. In one of those rare moments when legends bond in public, TV cameras caught seven-time winner Richard Petty having a long conversation with Jeff Gordon about fate -- how simple racing luck is all it takes to make or break your day. And as the checkered flag flew 48 laps early while the rain poured down around them, it was fate indeed that played a part in leaving only one of them with something to smile about.

To the surprise of most in attendance, that wasn't the Rainbow Warrior. For Gordon, it was a major disappointment; this race was supposed to be the one where he reestablished himself among the sport's elite. All week long, garage talk centered around how smoothly the DuPont Chevrolet rolled through the corners, and how Gordon seemed to approach Daytona more focused than he'd been in years. Just three days earlier, the No. 24 Chevrolet took control in its Gatorade Duel, taking the checkered flag for the first time since Charlotte in October of 2007.

All of that left Gordon one of the favorites to win Daytona's crown jewel a fourth time. But as he put himself in position to charge coming down the stretch -- leading 14 laps and never falling far from the top 5 -- fate intervened at the worst possible moment. Gordon's right front went flat 10 laps before a regularly scheduled green flag stop, forcing him to pit road early for fresh rubber. Five laps later, he was trapped a lap down when David Stremme's tire exploded on the race track, causing a caution before the rest of the lead pack had pitted.

While Gordon got the free pass, he was never in contention after that, trapped at the tail end of the lead lap without enough time to make up the distance. At one point, some late race strategy with teammate Mark Martin to pit for fresh rubber looked like it had potential to pay off. But fate intervened another time, and when Mother Nature had other ideas in the form of a raging downpour, Gordon was stranded in 13th without enough time to make up the distance.

"We got out of sequence," admitted Martin after the race. "If the thing went a little bit longer, we were heading toward the front."

But the race got cut short, allowing Gordon's pain to become Richard Petty's gain. At the moment Stremme's tire blew, Petty's cars of Elliott Sadler and Reed Sorenson were already making their green flag stops. The yellow allowed them to leave the pits without losing a lap, allowing them to stay out and take the lead when the rest of the field pitted. Shortly thereafter, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s wreck with Brian Vickers on the restart quickly eliminated several top contenders -- Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Carl Edwards among them -- leaving the team in perfect position to pull what would have been a major upset. Fate shined so strongly on RPM, in fact, that the crash allowed a third team member to suddenly pull up behind them.

"For me, I don't know exactly where everybody was running, but I was pretty far up," A.J. Allmendinger said about avoiding the wreck that put him in contention. "My spotter did a good job to get me through. At that point it's not a lot of driving skill; you pray you pick the right line and go through it."

With fate dealing the 'Dinger pocket aces, that left three RPM drivers in the top 10 for the restart on lap 132. From there, Sadler fought hard to stay up front with Sorenson behind him, while Allmendinger moved up into a position within the top 5. At one point, there was even an outside chance of a 1-2-3 performance, before contact between Sorenson and Matt Kenseth broke up the RPM juggernaut in front of the pack. One lap later, Kenseth and Kevin Harvick teamed up to blow by Sadler, who led 24 of the final 31 laps only to have a caution for rain come two minutes too late.

"Great mentality all night," said Sadler, in position for the biggest upset since Ward Burton in 2002 before one mental slip-up cost him dearly. "Had ourselves in position to win. If you'd have told me at the beginning of the day if I would take a fifth place finish and lead some laps for the Daytona 500, I probably would have taken it. It's a great way to get a good start to the season. But to be a half a lap short from being the champion of the Daytona 500 is very emotional to me. Had a chance to win it. Just made one mistake off of turn four."

That miscalculation caused Sadler to slip to fifth, but he remained one of three RPM cars within the top 10 -- Sorenson came home ninth, while Allmendinger finished a career-best third in the No. 44 Valvoline Dodge. Not bad for a team whose new co-owner was saved from extinction after a last-second merger kept Petty involved in the sport, allowing the former Gillett-Evernham team to expand from three to four cars. Allmendinger's ride is the one that remains a limited schedule, but the strong performance in the season's biggest race seems likely to change that sooner rather than later.

"I think it's a big deal," Allmendinger agreed of the shocking turnaround for a team that didn't even let him know he was hired until three weeks before Daytona. "It was a tough offseason for everybody. It was a long offseason. There's a lot of stuff that went on throughout the team with the merger. We came here, and I think it shows how strong the team is now.

"You can quit ... or work harder and make something happen. I'm never going to quit. I'm going to keep working harder. That's my attitude."

As for Sadler, a top 5 is sweet redemption just six weeks after being released from his contract on the No. 19 team, only to be taken back when he threatened a lawsuit through his attorneys. An awkward reunion ensued that's left many thinking a second divorce is on the way; instead, fate has led the pairing to its third top 10 in the Great American Race.

"I put my heart and soul to come in here to Daytona, Speedweeks, try to compete at the top of my game," Sadler said. "I knew I had a lot of eyes on me to run good. With the offseason that I've had, I feel like I deserved that win more than anyone."

But while Sadler's sting of defeat will last for a little while longer, a week from now he'll be happy about how far this team has come. And perhaps no one was smiling wider than the King himself, just weeks removed from the shutdown of his program.

"This is one heck of a way to start the season," Petty said. "This is how we want to start. I think George (Gillett Jr.) and I have something good here. Hopefully, this isn't the last time that you see those boys at the front of the pack working together like that."

Typically, teamwork is something you associate with Gordon and the four-car powerhouse he drives for -- Hendrick Motorsports. But as the checkered flag waved, HMS found itself with none of his four drivers finishing better than 14th, while in Petty's camp fate gave life to four words we haven't heard in ages.

Long live the King.