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Penske Racing bounced back from a disappointing Daytona to a productive performance at Auto Club Speedway, with Kurt Busch finishing sixth, Sam Hornish Jr. 16th and Brad Keselowski 21st. It was an important race for Dodge’s only full-time team. Penske made some major changes from 2009 and early success will make the transition and building process more efficient and the team more confident. When they do well they start believing in each other. When results go the other way, in-fighting and a lack of trust in the decision-making process become pitfalls.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t alone in his mad dash run from 10th to second in the final two laps of the Daytona 500. When Earnhardt went to the middle down the backstretch, David Reutimann darted behind him and bump drafted him past Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer going into Turn 3.

“When you’ve won everything but the 500, it’s hard to have that confidence that you know how to win the 500,” says Tony Stewart. “But it’s like we know how to win all the other races. We need to figure out how to win the one that matters most.”

Two years ago, Reed Sorenson was a contender in every race he ran during Speedweeks at Daytona. He finished fifth in the Budweiser Shootout, second in the Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race, and fifth in the biggest Sprint Cup race of them all: the Daytona 500. Sorenson had just turned 22. The sky seemed the limit. His was a career that was about to blossom.