I watched the race at my brother and sister-in-law's house. The first part of the race was a true sleeper. In fact, I took up an offer for a game of Scrabble with the girls.

At one point during my Scrabble game, everyone started yelling "Hey! Blogger, you've got to see this..." I dodged from the kitchen table into the living room to see Jeff Gordon heading to the pits because of a suspension problem. Honestly, it put a smile on my face and I went back to my game.

I finished up my Scrabble game and headed back to the living room to watch the last 30 laps or so. I'm glad I did. There was some fantastic racing going on.

As I always do during a race, I was trash talking Kyle Busch saying he was going to do something stupid and he wasn't going to win the race, even though he had the car to beat. My brother-in-law said "Jenny, Kyle Busch is the "GOAT" of the Sprint Cup Series." Yeah, right.

Anyone that has been reading this blog knows that I really like Juan Pablo Montoya. So when he [Montoya] was the one to pull a brain-dead move by taking out another driver that I like to watch, Clint Bowyer, who happened to be going for the lead, you can imagine the verbal abuse I was taking. So here it is.... Kyle Busch might not be as much of an idiot as Juan Pablo Montoya, at least in this race.

I thought when I started watching the race that it was going to be a season of Joe Gibbs Racing vs. Hendrick Motor Sports. What a pleasant surprise to have Roger Penske and Ryan Newman receive their first victory at the Daytona 500. Newman is a class act.

First off, how absolutely ridiculous that NASCAR couldn’t find an hour after the Busch race to qualify those last 14 cars... It was completely nuts to send the pole-sitter home. For the love of all that's good in racing, this top-35 qualifying rule must go!

Oh, and did I miss something? Since when do the commercials air in the lower right-hand corner of the television during the race? I didn’t know that was going to happen. I will admit it was kind of nice to be able to see the race during commercials. Because even though they say: "If caution breaks out, we'll break in," let's face it, that doesn't always happen.

Tony Stewart – I love his passion, but sometimes…

When interviewed in the garage after the wreck, he said Denny Hamlin had “tried to crash us on Friday in practice and didn’t get it done so he finished it off (Saturday).”

So the question is….WHY DID HE DRAFT WITH HIM FOR SO MANY LAPS? I know he’s one of the most passionate drivers out there and wears his emotions on his sleeve, but he should take a little responsibility.

HE hit Hamlin. HE knew Hamlin almost wrecked him on Friday practice. Hamlin’s car wasn’t handling well.

The finish –

I am not sure what I was rooting for more…Jamie McMurray to win and break his 166-race streak, even after being black flagged for going below the yellow line, or for Kyle Busch to NOT win the race. I am not a Kyle Busch fan at all. I think he’s a putz who causes a whole lot of wrecks.

In the end, I was very pleased to see McMurray win. It was a little too close for comfort but made for some great on-the-edge-of-your-seat racing to the line. He won by only 0.005 seconds.

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them.