"We're back!"
Auto racing can be a humbling sport. It can build you up seemingly overnight and tear you down even quicker.
Danica Patrick experienced that firsthand on Sunday. She blew a tire, experienced a hard wreck, and finished 39th one week after becoming the first woman in history to lead laps in the Daytona 500.
In the opposite sense, the sport can also be wholly rewarding for perseverance through trying times.
If 2012 was a terrible year for Carl Edwards, then his start to 2013 was downright hellish.
He wrecked a total of five cars during the NASCAR Cup Series' visit to Daytona International Speedway, including one during the Daytona 500, relegating him to a frustrating 33rd place finish.
These struggles are undoubtedly part of why Edwards considered Sunday's victory at Phoenix International Raceway, in his own words, "One of the coolest wins of my life."
It has indeed been a while since Edwards last visited victory lane in a Cup car — March 6, 2011 at Las Vegas to be more specific.
After losing the 2011 title to Tony Stewart on a tiebreaker, Edwards floundered for most of 2012, finishing the year ranked an irrelevant 15th — that whole tearing you back down thing mentioned earlier.
Now Edwards believes his win at Phoenix is a return to title contending form for the No.99 team.
"I'm telling you, we're back," Edwards said in victory lane. "This is gonna be good."
He also acknowledged how difficult the past year-and-some-change has been.
"Whatever it is you're doing out there, don't lose hope. You just keep digging and things can work out."
Only time will tell if Edwards is truly back.
But if Sunday's win was any indication of things to come, and if he keeps on digging as hard as he has been, then you can only imagine that he'll be just fine.
Still Some Work to be Done
The hype behind the new Gen-6 race car promised many things, among those being increased side by side racing.
So far, it hasn't quite lived up to its lofty expectations.
One week ago at Daytona drivers spent much of the race treating it as a single file parade. One week later, several drivers felt frustrated with a seeming difficulty to pass.
"I hate to be 'Denny Downer' but i just didn't pass that many cars today," Denny Hamlin told the media after the race. "That's the realistic fact of it.
"You look and we started 40-something and finished third and you think we just motored through the pack. And that's just not the case of what happened."
Just as it was silly to pass judgement on the new car after one restrictor plate race, it's silly now to judge the Gen-6 car after an event at a track that has a reputation as a tough place to pass.
But you have to wonder just how real the expectations really were for a car that was supposed to bring fans back to the sport with both good looks and impressive race-ability.
While its delivered to an extent on the former, the car has certainly stumbled out of the gate on the latter.
That's not to say it was a terrible race. The finish was quite exciting. There were several good battles throughout the field at different points in the event.
It's just that it looked like a typical Phoenix race with the "old" Car of Tomorrow. And given fans' opinions of the beleaguered COT, that's not exactly a compliment.
Hot Start for a Big Three
Three drivers have started off 2013 with two top-five finishes.
Daytona 500 winner and five-time champion Jimmie Johnson is one of them. Defending champion Brad Keselowski is another. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the third.
There are six-of-the-last seven championships and a gazillion Most Popular Driver awards represented in within that trio.
In other words, arguably the sport's three biggest stars are currently your top three in points. NASCAR has to be thrilled that three drivers who are both equally recognizable and polarizing are running so well out of the gate.
While Johnson and Keselowski are proven champions and should be expected to stick around, it will be interesting to see how much progress Earnhardt's No.88 team has made.
Phoenix has been a terrible track for Earnhardt the past few seasons, so to lead laps and finish fifth as he did on Sunday has to be a major confidence booster to this team.
If these three are among your title contenders throughout the 2013 season, we're in for a fun year, rather the Gen-6 car pans out or not.
Phoenix Rising
No, I'm not talking about the racetrack. I'm talking about the race team, Phoenix Racing.
After a seventh place run at Daytona with Regan Smith in the car, AJ Allmendinger brought the No.51 home in 11th.
That means that owner James Finch's team ranks sixth in owners points. Not bad for a group that doesn't even know what their schedule looks like after March.
Despite being underfunded, these boys are brining it.
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