By Sam Atwell

It comes as no surprise to me or anyone who listens to The Race Report that Danica will be racing in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday.  I stated on the show several weeks ago that she would be in the NNS race in Daytona, even after they said her debut would be in California the following week.  There was no way the PR machine named Danica was not going to be on the biggest stage of the NASCAR season.  The fact that she did a good job in the ARCA race is just a bonus and makes the decision for her to race on Saturday in the Nationwide race look like a performanced based decision.  The ARCA race was a good start for Danica and I think she will be fine in the Nationwide race, a top ten?  Not so much, but if she finishes in the top twenty I think that will be a fantastic NNS debut. 

Kevin Harvick picks up his second straight BudweiserShootout win and starts the 2010 season off on a positive note.  He joins a list of Neil Bonnett, Ken Schrader and Tony Stewart as consecutive winners of the race.  Kasey Kahne had his best career finish of the Shootout and Jamie McMurray picked up his second consecutive top-five finish.  Pretty good racing for the first time out with the new aero package.  There were five leaders and 12 lead changes, Carl Edwards led the most laps with 42.  Overall a great way to get the season started.

Can someone tell me again why Derrick Cope was in the Budweiser Shootout?  Does the Budweiser Shootout really need start and parkers?  15 laps was all Cope could manage to complete?  I do understand the desire of NASCAR to open the field to more drivers but can they at least have done something in the sport in the last 5 years.  In the last five years Cope has 11 starts.  In those 11 starts he had an average finish of 38.7, at least Saturday nights 24th place finish will help Cope’s average finish. 

by Sam Atwell

Kevin Harvick picks up the win in the Budweiser Shootout Saturday night in Daytona.  He had to to go to overtime to get the job done.  As with all recent restrictor plate races there was the required last lap crash involving several cars.  The shootout showed us that the 500 may be a great race.  Get a wrap-up of all the racing action from last weekend on todays edition of The Race Report Update.