So much for last season's disappointment of losing the championship carrying over into the next season.
Instead, Jimmie Johnson has further solidified himself among NASCAR's all-time greats, becoming the tenth driver in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500 multiple times.
The five-time Sprint Cup Series champion did so by passing Brad Keselowski moments before a caution flag flew for a piece of aluminum on the backstretch. He then held off charges from Keselowski, Greg Biffle, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the ensuing restart, beating Earnhardt to the finish line by about a car-length.
Coincidently, Sunday's edition of the Great American Race was also Johnson's 400th career start. Only Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Dave Marcis have accomplished the same feat. Quite the impressive list.
Interestingly, it was the first Daytona 500 victory crew chief Chad Knaus participated in. When Johnson won the 500 previously in 2006, it was with Darian Grubb, who was filling in for Knaus while he was serving a NASCAR mandated suspension for manipulating the rear window before a qualifying session.
It was the 61st victory of Johnson's career. He currently ranks eighth on the all-time wins list.
Always a Bridesmaid...
Okay, maybe that isn't completely accurate. He has won the Daytona 500 before, back in 2004.
But for the third time in four years, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished as the race's runner-up.
It wasn't without a fight, as he mounted a last lap charge with a push from Mark Martin, vaulting past Greg Biffle and Danica Patrick in the second position.
However, the run stalled as he got to Johnson's back bumper, and he couldn't make any moves from there.
Still, it was a solid finish to a Speedweeks that saw NASCAR's most popular driver oddly stuck in anonymity, mainly due to a car that his team couldn't get dialed in until the final practice session Saturday, as well as the attention Patrick has been getting from the media.
Now he'll head to Phoenix with the momentum of a strong finish.
Earnhardt could certainly use it; he hasn't finished better than tenth in the Arizona desert since 2008.
Historic Day for Patrick
While things figure to only get tougher from here, Danica Patrick actually validated the hype she conjured by winning the pole for the Daytona 500 by finishing eighth in the Great American Race.
It was the best finish ever recorded by a woman in NASCAR's top series, beating Janet Guthrie's pair of ninth place finishes recorded in 1977.
She also became the first woman to lead a lap in the Daytona 500, pacing the field for a total of five laps.
Is it a sign of things to come? Probably not in the immediate future. Now we head to tracks that put more focus on the drivers and less on the race teams as a whole.
And for how well she drove Sunday, her inexperience was particularly glaring during the final lap when she chose to maintain the status quo rather than play offense or defense.
But it's a solid start to her rookie campaign.
Let's face it, she succeeded most sensible expectations this past week.
Now we'll see if she has any more surprises in her.
The Little Guys
The fun stories that always seem to follow events at plate races usually revolve around the small teams who usually can't run up front who manage to record a strong finish.
This time around, three underfunded cars managed to finish inside the too ten.
Phoenix Racing's Regan Smith, Phil Parsons Racing's Michael McDowell and Tommy Baldwin Racing's J.J. Yeley finished seventh, ninth, and tenth respectively.
It was particularly special for McDowell, who recorded his first career top-ten finish in 115 starts. Due to PPR being traditionally a start-and-park-team, it was their first top-ten as an organization.
For Yeley, it was his first top-ten finish since 2008, when he finished third result at Loudon. It's only the second ever top-ten finish for TBR.
TRD Go Boom
The engines at Toyota Racing Development are earning a reputation for lacking reliability.
Sunday did nothing to hinder that belief.
Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Michael Waltrip all had engine troubles of some kind during the event. Each of these ran in the top ten at some point in the race.
Within what was only a span of a few laps Kenseth and Busch dropped off the race track, out of the top-three in running position, and out of the race with terminal failures.
Truex and Waltrip were able to limp to the finish after their respective engines each dropped a cylinder.
It's not a confidence builder for a manufacturer that is trying to become a legitimate title threat. The rosters at both Joe Gibbs Racjng and Michael Waltrip Racing are loaded with talent, but they'll never get the opportunity to parlay that into a run at NASCAR's ultimate prize if they don't iron out these mechanical issues.
Perpetually Snakebit
Richard Childress Daving had shown tons of speed during speedweeks. Their three cars if Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, and Paul Menard were all fast during the Sprint Unlimited and the Budweiser Duels.
Harvick won the Unlimited and his duel, setting that team up for a shot at a rare sweep of Speedweeks.
Instead, RCR ended up with three wrecked race cars in the Daytona 500, with finishes of 21st (Menard), 30th (Burton), and 42nd (Harvick).
Meanwhile, hard-luck Carl Edwards went into Sunday's race believing thins couldn't possibly get worse, having already wrecked four cars at Daytona Beach before the 500 had even started.
His bad luck was not over, however, as he caught up in a wreck on lap 139 while running towards the back of the pack.
Luckily, there are still 25 races remaining until the Chase. But it's never a good thing to start off a new year on the wrong foot, especially when much of the previous season was spent on the wrong foot.
Follow the Leader
One theme that carries through the entirety of Speedweeks was this: passing the leader is difficult as all get out.
Much of the race was spent with the field running in a single file line around the top of the race track, mostly because the aerodynamics of the new Gen-6 car made it hard to pass cars on the inside without lots of help.
Cars seemed to stall out when they got alongside or near the bumpers of other cars, a phenomenon seen since the drivers first attempted to form up a pack in the opening practice for the Sprint Unlimited.
If there was one unarguable positive about the 2013 Daytona 500, it's that it didn't end with a silly 20+ car accident coming to the checkered flag. For that reason alone, the finish was, if not entertaining — which I thought it was, mind you —then at least somewhat refreshing.
Your mileage may vary on how much a good finish outweighs a rather mediocre beginning and middle, of course.
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