Engines starting to rev

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- When Peyton Manning finally hoisted the Lombardi Trophy after leading the Indianapolis Colts over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI last Sunday, NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Tony Stewart, a tad superstitious as well as a home-grown Hoosier from Columbus, Ind., saw it as a good omen.

"I sent him a text message a few minutes after the game was over and I wrote, 'You've got yours finally, now it's time for me to get my Super Bowl,' " Stewart said yesterday at Daytona International Speedway, where the driver of the orange No. 20 Chevrolet is considered a strong contender to win his first Daytona 500.

"Peyton winning the Super Bowl, a lot of things that have lined up to make us feel really good coming in here this year," Stewart said. "It's kind of one of those things where I'm superstitious about everything and it's one of those things where this falls in line. I feel like maybe we'll have the opportunity to get there."

Pitchers and catchers haven't even reported yet, but hope springs eternal in the heart of NASCAR, where newly elected Hall of Famer Cal Ripken will pace the 43-car field of the season-opening Daytona 500 Feb. 18, with a record purse that will exceed $18 million.

And you wonder why there's so much hype surrounding the start of the Nextel Cup season?

ESPN will cover the final 17 races of the season, including all 10 in the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship. It could be NASCAR fans are eager to see how the arrival of Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya (the class of a field of six rookie drivers) and deep-pocketed Japanese manufacturer Toyota will further globalize their once Southern-fried sport of stock car racing.

"Toyota coming into NASCAR will make our sport more popular," said Michael Waltrip, owner-driver of his own fledgling Nextel Cup team that will field cars for himself (No. 55 Toyota), Dale Jarrett (the No. 44 Toyota), and rookie David Reutimann (No. 00 Toyota). "There will be more eyeballs tuned into ESPN to see what Toyota is doing and I think that's a good thing."

Those eyeballs might have to tune in to keep track of myriad changes in drivers and teams.

Of the 49 full-time Nextel Cup teams, nine existing teams will be fielding new drivers, eight will be new teams, and five of those will field Toyotas.

The new drivers with existing teams: Mark Martin in the No. 01 Chevrolet; Ward Burton in the No. 4 Chevrolet; rookie David Ragan in the No. 6 Ford; Elliott Sadler in the No. 19 Dodge; Jon Wood (on a limited basis for retiring Ken Schrader) in the No. 21 Ford; Casey Mears in the No. 25 Chevrolet; Montoya in the No. 42 Dodge; David Gilliland in the No. 38 Ford; and Ricky Rudd in the No. 88 Ford.

The other drivers with brand new teams: Joe Nemechek in the No. 13 Chevrolet; rookie Paul Menard in the No. 15 Chevrolet; Jeremy Mayfield in the No. 36 Toyota; Johnny Sauter in the No. 70 Chevrolet; Brian Vickers in the No. 83 Toyota; and rookie A.J. Allmendinger in the No. 84 Toyota.

"In any sport, fans have their favorite athlete and throughout time they change teams and change cars," said Vickers, who left the No. 25 car. "Fans usually figure it out pretty quick, so it's going to be no secret that I'm in the Red Bull Racing Toyota."

It could be that NASCAR decided to tweak its championship format, placing more of an emphasis on winning races after three of its marquee drivers -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon two years ago, and Stewart last year -- failed to make the cut.

"Winning is what this sport is all about," said Brian France, NASCAR's chairman and CEO. "Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the top 10. We want our sport -- especially during the Chase -- to be all about winning."

NASCAR officials will expand the field to the top 12 drivers in points after 26 races, eliminate the 400-point cutoff, award 5 more points (to 185) for each victory, then reset the point totals of the 12 eligible Chase drivers at 5,000 before awarding 10 bonus points for each regular-season victory and reseeding the Chase field based on the driver with the most regular-season wins.

"There is nothing about it that's unfair to anybody. So long as it's the same for everybody, it's fine with me," said Stewart, who finished 11th behind Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson last season. "As long as it's not something that's decided two weeks before the Chase starts, as long as everybody knows beforehand, it's not a big issue."

That's not the only alteration race fans will have to contend with. There will be the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow, a safer, cost-effective, and performance-enhanced racecar developed over seven years at NASCAR's Research and Development Center. It will be phased into competition this season in March before being fully implemented next season.

"It's just the fact that it's new to all the teams," said Kevin Harvick, whose Richard Childress Racing team is considered way ahead of the learning curve through its extensive testing with the Car of Tomorrow. "It's understanding the balance of the car, and the way the aero balance needs to be, what springs you need in the front, and what shocks you need.

"We have no clue what we're up against," Harvick added. "We can go make the car go good as we have been right now, but we don't have any clue what it's going to be like when you get around 42 other cars, as far as what you're fighting. Are you tight in traffic? Are you loose in traffic? What do we need to do to make it better?"

But Harvick believes the Car of Tomorrow's debut race, March 25 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in the Food City 500, is unlikely to yield many answers.

"You're not going to be running side-by-side at Bristol," Harvick said, referring to Bristol's steep-banked [36 degrees], half-mile bullring. "I think Loudon in New Hampshire [host of the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 July 1] will be a tell tale sign of how bad it's going to push or if it's not going to push."

All the hand-wringing, at least for the new drivers and new teams, will start with tomorrow night's Bud Shootout, the 70-lap dash for cash that will kick off Speedweeks 2007. Stewart is eager to build off the momentum and good karma of his offseason.

"Yeah, we had a great offseason between winning both nights at Fort Wayne [in a midget car], winning the Chili Bowl [in a sprint car] with a new sponsor and having a record number of entries, and then coming here," Stewart said. "While we were at Chili Bowl, Mike McLaughlin was driving our car here and Zippy [crew chief Greg Zipadelli] said that with these cars we might have the best shot at winning the Daytona 500.

"When your crew chief goes out on a limb and says that, it gives you confidence as a driver that maybe this is going to be the best shot that you have."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.