My darkhorse is Dave Blaney, who drives the No. 22 Toyota for Bill Davis Racing. The veteran looked good in the Bud Shootout, coming home seventh, and if he would have gotten a bit of help he could have finished in the top four. Blaney's restrictor-plate talents should not be underestimated.

Keys to success at Daytona
This is a track that is banked so that drivers can try and hold the throttle wide open and never back off. But it's a superspeedway that has always been temperamental when it comes to allowing drivers to ride wide open for the whole race. The COT will make it a bit more difficult to keep running wide open off of Turn 2. It was hard to do so in the old car and will be even more difficult in the COT.

To reduce a car's horsepower, they use a restrictor plate -- an aluminum plate between the carburetor and intake manifold -- thereby restricting the amount of air-fuel mixture that goes in the engine, which is what produces the horsepower. With the horsepower restricted -- reduced by about 50 percent -- aerodynamics becomes a huge factor, and two cars nose-to-tail are faster than a single car going around the track -- thus the importance of working with other drivers, especially teammates.

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Track position is a huge factor as are pit stops, which must be flawless. In this race, expect drivers to make at least five or six pit stops, and a mistake while in the pits can prove very costly because a driver can fall way back in the pack, and not be heard from again for the rest of the race.

Drivers will also have to be very careful not to get penalized for speeding on pit row as they are facing the electronic timing of their pit-row speeds by NASCAR. It's challenging for them to do this at all tracks, but Daytona International Speedway is especially challenging.

Big wrecks are always a possibility at Daytona. The best chance to stay out of them is to be among the top five or so cars because anywhere further back and the odds aren't nearly as good for staying clear of multi-car crashes. No driver wants a short day to begin the season. They all will be trying very hard to keep clear of the Big One.

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