Richard Petty, 7 times winner, waves the green flag and the 50th running of the Daytona 500 is under way. At the end of the first lap Michael Waltrip (#55) briefly took the lead but was quickly passed by pole sitter Jimmie Johnson (#48). Lap 4 Denny Hamlin (#11) and team mate Tony Stewart (#20) go to the front.

Settling down to watch the Daytona 500, I thought it might be fun to repeat last year’s experiment and live blog the event.

Before the green flag drops, here’s a few thoughts and the inevitable predictions. It seems that following his Bud Shootout and Duel 125 victories this week Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on a roll with his new team. On Speed TV this morning they showed a local Daytona newspaper headline that declared that Jr had been “Reborn to Run.” A Jr win seems to be on the cards. But my gut feeling is that Tony Stewart will give Toyota its first Cup win, as well as his first 500 win.

Our family favorite is Juan Montoya (who we’ve seen race most of his career), but given the current perfomance of the Dodge and Ganassi team track record at Daytona (in NASCAR that is), I seriously doubt he’ll add the 500 to his recent Rolex victory.

I’ve been sick for most of this weekend, so I ended up slumped on the sofa in front of the TV a lot more than I usually do. As a result I ended up watching about 10 hours of the SPEED TV coverage of the Rolex 24 Hours race from Daytona.

In no particular order, here are a few random thoughts that occured to me while watching the coverage.

•  I love modern enduranc racing, thanks to the improved car  strength the reliabilty runs of the past have been replced by every hour being run as if it were a 50 lap sprint. There was more action here than most Grands Prix and NASCAR (whatever it’s called this year) Cup races.
• Can SPEED have Bob Varsha and David Hobbs call every major race they cover?
• Pit reporter Calvin Fish asks some great questions, but does he have to call everyone he talks to “mate.”?
• This was a true International Race of Champions, it would have been even better if we’d had a few of the top F1 guys there too.  How about the FIA, NASCAR and the IRL get together and  mandate that the top three finishers in their respective championships have to run the following year’s Daytona 24 Hours. – Ah I can dream.
• I give it 2 years before Roger Penske is dominating the Rolex 24.
• Congratulations to the Chip Ganassi organization for their third straight victory. It was well deserved.