Norm has withdrew his entry for the 2008 Daytona 500
Check out the Article to the Bottom from Daytona, lots of quotes from Norm.
Testing proved to be a success in Daytona. Insiders at the track have reported that the testing session has revealed where the team needs to make improvements in the upcoming weeks. Things like this would have never been found without this valuable test time at the track.
Norm Ran His Best Time on Wednesday
| 32nd fastest | #57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 50.171 | 179.386 |
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Benning Runs in 53rd spot among Session 2 drivers on Monday, but look who the drivers are a few tenths ahead of him. Some very big names. Keep in mind that Benning is only working the cobwebs out of his racecar, and his race motor is not being used for this test session.
| 47 | 49A | Ken Schrader | Dodge | 49.74 | 180.941 |
| 48 | 09A | Sterling Marlin | Chevy | 49.941 | 180.213 |
| 49 | 29B | Kevin Harvick | Chevy | 50.003 | 179.989 |
| 50 | 49B | Ken Schrader | Dodge | 50.168 | 179.397 |
| 51 | 09B | Sterling Marlin | Chevy | 50.183 | 179.344 |
| 52 | 08A | Carl Long | Dodge | 50.764 | 177.291 |
| 53 | 57A | Norm Benning | Chevy | 50.889 | 176.856 |
NASCAR COMMENTARY
Back-of-garage battle for Daytona slots
DAYTONA BEACH
Crew uniforms, when there are any, are usually
generic. Sponsors, when there are any, are not Fortune 500
enterprises, such as the No. 8 My Cousin Vinny's Ristorante &
Pizzaria Dodge Charger driven by Carl Long.
These are the boys in the back, located in Daytona International
Speedway garage stalls 45 through 74. They are drivers and teams who
did not have enough points at the end of the 2007 season to nab a
spot in the new, covered, ventilated garages that actually have
doors, and have big windows at the back that face a fan area, and
have little slots where fans can get autographs from their favorite
drivers. Garage stalls 45-74 are in an aging open-air structure with
a tin roof, lit by neon tubes covered with a rusty wire grid.
Being here carries a message: You have some work to do. You are a
long shot.
That has always been the message, but it became downright grim in
2005. That's when NASCAR passed the "top 35" law, guaranteeing a
Daytona 500 starting spot for teams that finished in the top 35 in
points in the previous season.
Three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip once talked about how,
for a couple of weeks every February, Daytona Beach, not Disney
World, was the happiest place on Earth. When stock-car teams arrived
in Florida to get ready for the Daytona 500, "it was a field of
dreams," Waltrip said. "Possibilities were unlimited. Every car
could be the fastest, every driver could win the race."
No longer. Now there are 35 bored guys here for the six days of
NASCAR Sprint Cup testing, and 30 or so desperate guys, who know
their chances of making the biggest race of the season are slim. The
slimmest: Those are the boys in stalls 45 through 74.
"I've been coming here since 1992," says driver Norm Benning, hoping
to qualify for the Daytona 500 in his unsponsored No. 57 Chevrolet
Impala. "We used to run the twin 125 qualifying races, and if you
finished in the top 16, you made the Daytona 500. Now we're all
fighting for seven positions."
Six, actually, assuming some past NASCAR champ doesn't qualify, and
uses his "Past Champion's Provisional" starting spot like Dale
Jarrett did last year.
Still, hope springs eternal. NASCAR's "Car of Tomorrow" has never
raced at Daytona, but will Feb. 17.
"I love the idea of the COT car here. The playing field is a lot
more level," says Benning, who is driving a car his team bought from
Dale Earnhardt, Inc. He figures that since this is the first race at
Daytona with the new car, "I don't believe anybody has it figured
out like they did the old car. So if you hit on something, you might
just get lucky."
Only slightly less chipper is Carl Long, a perpetual hopeful who has
qualified for 23 NASCAR Sprint Cup races since 2000.
"We're struggling, sure. The big teams are gonna be what they are --
big -- and we're trying to learn without the computers and stuff
they have to figure out."
Like Benning, Long is a fan of the COT, and how every team is on a
learning curve at Daytona. "I think they'll race a lot like the
Craftsman trucks here, and that we'll be able to keep up in the
draft even if we don't quite have the package the big teams do. I
think my chances of racing into the Daytona 500 are a lot stronger
than they've ever been."
Not everyone stuck in stalls 45-74 is a relative unknown, though.
Sterling Marlin has run 732 Sprint Cup races, and won the Daytona
500 in 1994 and 1995. (Interesting that his check was for $253,275
in 1994; Kevin Harvick took home $1,510,470 for his victory last
year.)
"The car drives pretty well," Marlin says. "I don't think we'll be
fast enough to be in the top-three qualifying, so we'll have to race
our way in." Marlin's No. 9 Chevrolet Impala is owned by James
Finch's Phoenix Racing, one of the most successful part-time teams.
This particular car qualified 20th at Talladega last year, but with
the top 35 locked in, even that wasn't good enough to get into the
race. "NASCAR rules, you know," Marlin says, shrugging. He is no fan
of the top-35 rule. "They ought to take the top-40 fastest cars,
period. These guys in the top 35 have such a cushion that they don't
have to push it in the top 35 races. It's tough."
It's also sort of unprecedented -- in virtually all other forms of
motorsports, the fast cars race, the slow cars don't. Marlin cites
the National Hod Rod Association as an example: If you don't qualify
in the top 16, you don't race. "I know this isn't drag racing, but
that just seems the fair way to do it."
I understand why NASCAR instituted the top-35 rule -- so all the big
stars would race, and all their big sponsors would get TV time. But
it seems like the season-opening Daytona 500 ought to be a fresh
start for everyone. Unanimously, I think, the boys in 45-74 would
agree.
Steven Cole Smith can be reached at scsmith@orlandosentinel.com.