Hendrick team picks up at Daytona where it left off

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The NASCAR scoring tower never seems to change. A Hendrick Motorsports sweep, 1-2-3.

That's how NASCAR's top team ended last season, and exactly how they opened the first practice of this year.

And when the flag waves on Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500, three Hendrick cars will lead the field in NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl.

Mark Martin, the 51-year-old throwback, will start from the pole in an attempt to snap an 0-for-25 Daytona 500 streak. Dale Earnhardt Jr., the rock star suffering through a confidence-testing slump, shares the front row with his teammate.

Right behind them is Jimmie Johnson, the four-time defending Cup champion who has given no indication he will relax his run of NASCAR domination anytime soon.

So forgive the rest of the field if they've had just about enough of the Hendrick camp.

"I think about that sometimes. I think everybody probably does," said Kasey Kahne, who wedged his Richard Petty Motorsports entry alongside Johnson in the second row to crash the Hendrick party.

"We got down here and the first practice it was 1-2-3-4 or something like that with the Hendrick cars. We're always chasing them it seems like, but I feel like I'm in the best position I've been in awhile, as far as this race, to have a shot to race with those guys and actually beat some of them."

A new year, but the goal remains the same across the garage: Figure out how to beat the Hendrick guys.

There's no better stage, either, than Daytona International Speedway and the biggest race of the season. The 52nd running of the Great American Race comes at a critical time for NASCAR, which launched a series of rapid-fire changes designed to add some much-needed energy to a sport that had seemingly hit its plateau.

The industry already received a huge boost from Danica Patrick. Although she's not racing the Daytona 500, her participation in lower-level events has reinforced the fact that a successful superstar can invigorate the series.

That's got to come, though, from Earnhardt Jr. Just like NASCAR, he heads into 2010 at a critical juncture of his career.

Team owner Rick Hendrick made rebuilding the No. 88 team the organization's top priority. How much they've accomplished will be on display at Daytona, where Earnhardt is considered one of the best racers. He's got 2 Cup victories at Daytona over his career, including the 2004 Daytona 500.

Earnhardt wants another Daytona win, and to get on pace with his successful Hendrick teammates.

"There's nothing else I really want to do," he said. "There's no other place that I want to be."

• Even as her mangled race car belched steam from its radiator in the background, Danica Patrick remained confident she would have good days in NASCAR.

This wasn't one of them.

Making her NASCAR debut, Patrick ran outside the top 20 for most of Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway before getting caught up in a 12-car wreck just past the race's halfway point.

Patrick was hoping to learn as much as she could about a new style of racing. She ended up going to the school of hard knocks.

"It's important to have realistic expectations," Patrick said. "There's going to be spikes in performance, I don't doubt that. But there's also going to be tough days. And today, I would say, was more of a tough day."

Tony Stewart went on to win the race for the fifth time in six years.