MOTORSPORT: Holden's blocking move, Ford's US glory

Holden has retained Triple Eight, better known to the public as Team Vodafone, as well as its long-time factory outfit, Holden Racing Team, on multi-year deals.

In the US the Daytona 500 got underway 31 hours late after two postponements because of rain and Ford, which had been the pacesetter manufacturer throughout the lead-up, won the Great American Race for the third time in four years.

The bizarre night race lasted more than six hours and had to go an extra two laps, making it a Daytona 505. Australia's Marcos Ambrose notched his best result in the event -- 13th, after leading briefly before half distance and making up nine places in the final two laps after late damage to his Ford Fusion and a series of pitstops.

Matt Kenseth's victory was his second in four years, ahead of Chevrolet favourite Dale Earnhardt Junior and Greg Biffle, another Ford driver who protected Kenseth but didn't have the horsepower to beat him.

It has been a glorious start to the motor racing year on the international stage for the Blue Oval, with victories in the Daytona 24-Hour sports car classic, the Rally of Sweden and now the Daytona 500, America's biggest race -- screened on prime-time television for the first time. This success poses a couple of questions: how does Ford leverage it under the global "One Ford" drive, and can these victories be emulated regularly by Fords in V8 Supercar racing this year?

Triple Eight sees Holden tie 'for years to come'
Any tie-ups by manufacturers coming into V8 Supercar racing will have to be with mid-tier teams after Holden's extension of its deal with Triple Eight.

Nissan is to enter under the Car of the Future next year with the Kelly brothers against Holden and Ford and there has been speculation of Chrysler following suit -- and perhaps a Korean manufacturer.

With Triple Eight taken out of play by Holden, and Prodrive welded to Ford Performance Racing, manufacturers would have to look to Stone Brothers (a Ford loyalist), Garry Rogers Motorsport (which the talk has linked Chrysler to) or Brad Jones Racing.

Holden made its announcement at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide yesterday ahead of this weekend's season-opening Clipsal 500.

"Holden has supported the top level of Australian touring cars for over 40 years and we are proud of our racing history and the role it plays in our brand -- motorsport is an important part of Holden's DNA," the company's motorsport and sponsorship manager Simon McNamara said. "Holden has been tested many times as series regulations have evolved throughout the years, and we have met each one with success... V8 Supercars' Car of the Future in 2013 is no different.

"This announcement makes a clear statement that Holden is ready to meet the COTF challenge head on. With HRT and TeamVodafone we have the two very best teams, four championship-winning drivers (Garth Tander, James Courtney, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes), and the finest race engineering capabilities.

"Holden is better prepared than ever before."

McNamara boasted that HRT and Triple Eight had won 11 of the past 16 Australian touring car/V8 Supercar championships and the last 11 Bathurst 1000s, although Triple Eight ran Fords until the end of 2009.

Whincup and Lowndes scored a hat-trick of Bathurst victories in 2006-08 and Whincup won the series title in 2008 and '09 in Falcons before the switch to Holdens. Whincup's father David died last weekend after a short illness but the triple champion will be on track in Adelaide this weekend to begin his title defence. Jamie Whincup has won the Clipsal four times, including three of the past four years.

Triple Eight had been seen as the most likely candidate in the unlikely event Toyota came into V8 Supercars but team managing director Roland Dane said he was proud to renew and continue its Holden relationship.

"We regard ourselves as long-term GM partners, having had so much success with the brand in both the UK (winning multiple British touring car championships with Vauxhall) and Australia," Dane said. "We are only racing to win and Holden's continued support will undoubtedly help us to maintain that record as we enter this critical development phase in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

"We look forward to continuing to win for Holden for many years to come."

Ambrose reckoned his Richard Petty Motorsports car was "better than a 13th place finish". He ran in second and third places approaching the one-third mark of the race. Later he made contact with Terry Labonte, spinning the veteran -- a two-time NASCAR champion known as Ice Man -- on the front straight.

Within 30 laps of the 200 scheduled on the 31-degree banked superspeedway to go Casey Mears hit the back of Ambrose's Fusion, spearing him across the soggy grass inside turn one. That ripped off Ambrose's undertray and he dropped a lap on the leaders. He had to make several late stops for work on the car, especially to its cooling system, but gained a free pass back on to the lead lap and in the finish charged from 22nd to his eventual 13th.

The race had started at 7pm after the rain delays and Fox televised it through prime-time. A delay of more than two hours after Juan Pablo Montoya spun out of control into a jet dryer working high up on the track set off a fireball that required a huge clean-up, including the use of laundry detergent.

Montoya had felt "a weird vibration" and said his car "just turned right" in fourth gear.

Penske driver Brad Keselowski tweeted photos from his mobile phone during the hold-up.

The chequered flag was not waved until after 1am Florida time.

Kenseth's victorious Ford spewed water as he slowed down after leading the last 38 laps on way to his 22nd Sprint Cup win. Team owner Jack Roush had not secured enough sponsorship for Kenseth to run the whole season but had already committed to fielding the 2003 series champion all year.

There were 10 caution periods in the Daytona race -- several after crashes involving seven and then eight cars. The first "big one" on the second lap eliminated Jimmie Johnson, champion the five seasons before last year.

Danica Patrick, making her Sprint Cup debut as the third woman to race in the Daytona 500, miraculously came through the first pile-up, darting cleanly between two cars spinning on the infield. But she dropped 64 laps while her car was repaired, before finishing 38th of the 43 starters.

Last year's young Daytona winner Trevor Bayne was another casualty of that early crash.

Top team Hendrick Motorsports not only missed out on its 200th Cup victory, but Johnson has now finished 14th or worse in six of his past seven races and Jeff Gordon's engine expired mid-race, but Earnhardt's second place was his fifth finish of third or better -- including victory in 2004 --  in the Great American Race. His legendary father, seven-time series champion Dale Senior, won the Daytona 500 in 1998 but died on the last lap there three years later.
The second round of this year's Sprint Cup is this weekend at Phoenix, Arizona.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after first of 36 rounds -- 1. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 47 points; 2. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Chevrolet) 42; 3. Greg Biffle (Ford) 42; 4. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 42; 5. Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 40; 6. Paul Menard (Chevrolet) 39; 7. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 37; 8. Carl Edwards (Ford) 36; 9. Joey Logano (Toyota) 36; 10. Mark Martin (Toyota) 35. Australia's Marcos Ambrose (Ford) is 13th on 31 points.

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