DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Chrysler Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli met with Dodge team owners earlier Sunday and announced there would be a $1 million bonus for a Dodge victory.  During a meeting with several members of the motorsports press later in the day, he predicted a Dodge victory. 
Ryan Newman’s victory for Penske Racing means an extra $1 million will be coming Penske’s way.
Newman collected $1,506,045 for the win plus the $1 million bonus from Dodge.
“This is an awesome victory,” said Mike Accavitti, director, Dodge Motorsports and SRT Marketing. “The win is super important. Ryan and the No. 12 team did an excellent job. Penske Racing was on top of their game today. It was a great showing by all the Dodge teams; to get six out of the top eight is just a phenomenal showing for Dodge. It shows the depth of our program and we couldn’t be more excited for the 2008 season.”

• When it comes to assessing the true legends of the Daytona 500, Dale Jarrett’s name belongs near the top of the list.
While Richard Petty is the all-time winning driver in Daytona 500 wins with seven followed by Cale Yarborough’s four, Jarrett is one of three drivers that have won this race three times in his career.
When he announced last October that he would drive in five races this season and then retire, the 50th Daytona 500 took on added significance to the son of two-time NASCAR Cup champion Ned Jarrett. But the only way he was going to make it into the race was through one of the two transfer positions in Thursday’s second Gatorade Duel at Daytona qualifying race.
Once Jarrett made it into the race, he could focus on making his final start in NASCAR’s biggest race.
“Certainly I wanted to be a part of the 50th running of the Daytona 500,” Jarrett said. “Now that we have the hard part over with, we have to go to work on this baby and tune it up a little bit to see what we can do on Sunday.”

• Even the mild-mannered Sam Hornish, Jr., perhaps his generation’s greatest IndyCar driver, showed tremendous excitement with the overall team effort at Penske Racing in the Daytona 500 with uncharacteristic exuberance.
“I’m stoked,” Hornish said. “This is a big puzzle that we’re trying to put together here and put all of the right people in the right places. We’re just moving forward and trying to do the best that we can. I’m about as happy as I can be with a 15th-place finish. I want to win every time we go out there, not to be disappointed about it. We came in with a goal that if we were in the top 20 we would be happy with that. Not only were we able to do that, but we were able to see one of our teammates win, so that was great.”

• Kyle Busch led the most laps in Sunday’s Daytona 500 when he was in front eight times for 86 laps, but finished fourth.
“We had the dominant car all day long,” Busch said. “I could hold it wide open every single lap of the race.  It’s frustrating to come home fourth, but that’s a part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn’t keep up with us, but there were all of those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead. The guys at the engine shop gave us some great horsepower. We’ll take it on and go to California and have a good one there.”

• Gillett Evernham Motorsports finished sixth with Elliott Sadler and seventh with Kasey Kahne.
“I finished seventh here last season, so it’s a good start,” Kahne said. “We were much better today than we were last season when we should have finished about 20th, but I got through that wreck. It’s a strong day for us today and hopefully it is like that all year long. Hopefully we’ll run in the top 10.”  
Throw in Robby Gordon, who has formed an alliance with Gillett Evernham, with an eighth-place finish and it was a pretty good day for the Dodge operation.
“Hats off to all of the guys at GEM (Gillett Evernham Motorsports) and the motors and everybody else that worked on all these cars and hard work, so congratulations to Dodge and obviously the two Penske boys,” Gordon said. “It looks like they got their restrictor- plate program figured out. They’ve always been there, but never had the results. It looks like they delivered today.”
 
• Dario Franchitti started 40th and finished 33rd in his first Daytona 500.
“We finished — that’s about all I can say right now,” Franchitti said. “The guys gave it their absolute best and we had great pit stops all day long. The car was a little slow, but the problem was that anytime anyone got behind me and I was in the middle of the pack, the car was unbelievably loose. I had to run at the back or I was going to crash. I think I need to work to give the guys better information to set the car up. We need to work on that, but we learned some stuff today, which was good, and I have a lot to learn about drafting.”