NASCAR Cup Series

Are Hendrick, Gibbs really the teams to watch at Daytona?

Published Feb. 18, 2015 11:29 a.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

Already in both the NASCAR Sprint Unlimited and Sunday's qualifying sessions at Daytona International Speedway, we've seen two organizations solidly up front.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Matt Kenseth won his first Sprint Unlimited Saturday night, while Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson are locked into the front row for the Daytona 500.

Now on the flip-side of all that success, you have both Hendrick's Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Gibb's Denny Hamlin with their qualifying times disallowed due to infractions.

As we've seen countless times, anything can and usually does happen at the end of the Daytona 500. Somebody can make the right move at the right time, or somebody else can get that much-needed push at the end to win the race. But while initially the Hendrick and Gibbs camps have set themselves above the rest, I think it would be a mistake to just assume the races is going to come down to just their cars.

You can't discount the Fords in the field because they have just as much speed. For that matter, look at how well Martin Truex Jr. performed Saturday night in the Sprint Unlimited. His is a single-car that has Earnhardt-Childress powerplants and has an alliance with Richard Childress Racing. Martin had a great run the other night finishing second, plus he led the most laps (29) of any driver in the field. So that team looked to have as much speed as anyone Saturday night.

We have both 150-mile races on Thursday on FOX Sports 1 that will set the final field for Sunday, and then naturally we have the Daytona 500 three days later.

I still sit here in Daytona today and tell you anyone has a chance to win. Once we have the field set Thursday evening, you could blindfold me, put the starting grid in front of me and I could put my finger down on a name and that driver will have just as much chance to win the Daytona 500 as the other 42 drivers in the field.