Sunday Notes and Quotes: Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Here's a few rumblings and bumblings from a soggy evening at Daytona:

Are television viewers more important than full races? I think its a very valid question to wonder why NASCAR is so willing to push the snooze button later and later on Sunday afternoons with the start times of its Sprint Cup Series races.

It was just eight years ago that the Daytona 500 started at 12:30pm local time, while Sunday, it started after 3:40pm local time. The reason? Television ratings and commercial advertising rates go up the later in the day thanks to West Coast viewers and the "prime time" effect kicking in on the East Coast.

Sunday, the late start time produced one good thing: racing under the lights. But it also produced a shortened race that could have been avoided by just starting the race an hour earlier. It did rain Sunday morning at Daytona, but the track was ready to roll by 2 p.m. local time.

I know that its not a perfect system, but when it comes to finishing races or catching viewers -- NASCAR ought to think about what made this sport: competition.

Elliott Sadler was bitterly disappointed with himself following the race despite earning a 5th-place finish.

"You know, it's tough. It's hard to swallow," said Sadler. "But I'm proud of my guys. New team. New pit stops. They all worked out great tonight. To look in their faces when the rain was coming down when I got out of the car, man, that was hard, because I felt like I let them down."

The 5th-place finish for Sadler wasn't as bad as it could have been Sunday night. Just over a month ago, he had been removed from his ride before later being reinstated.

Joey Logano's weekend ended pretty appropriately for the troubles he had throughout Speedweeks. The 18-year-old lost it coming off turn four on lap 79 and pounded the inside wall head-on before spinning into the infield grass.

Logano had never been to Daytona in a race car, and it showed. He made contact with the wall several times throughout his time here and even had Kyle Busch get in the car on Friday to try and make it handle better and run faster. Sunday, he lost the lead draft early in the event.

Jamie McMurray's strong run ended with a multi-car crash that took out what was probably the strongest Roush Fenway Ford for the early part of the race. McMurray never led, but was a constant figure in the Top-10 before getting tangled in the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Brian Vickers mess on lap 125.

"I was getting run into from the abck and I'm hitting the guy in front of me, and it looked like someone got spun around in the right," said McMurray. "I drove really well and we had some awesome horsepower this weekend from Yates and all those guys.

"Sometimes, it's just not your day."

FanHouse in Daytona officially comes to a close Sunday night, and its sure been a fun ride. It's been an incredible four days hanging around the grounds of NASCAR's most-famous track and to feel the energy that this race brings and the passion that the competitors put in to winning it makes this race second-to-none.

I hope you've enjoyed our coverage this weekend and we'll certainly look forward to bringing plenty of NASCAR news, notes and opinions as the 2009 season gets started and for the rest of the year. Holly and I will be both be at-track for a number of races in 2009, and we hope you'll be along for the ride.

Next week? Stop by for plenty of analysis of the news from Auto Club Speedway.

See you then.