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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Race car drivers, Jeff Burton said, like to be in the lead.

"To be honest, some of it is ego," Burton said Thursday at Daytona International Speedway, where qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

"A driver's ego gets him into positions he really doesn't want to be in sometimes. It's not always in your best interest to be leading."

Burton found this out first-hand in February's Daytona 500. On a restart with three laps remaining, he was leading the sport's biggest race.

"That's what, your whole life, you've been trying to do," Burton said. "But I thought, 'Oh boy, we're in trouble.' "

That's because Burton knew that cars would be lining up behind him to challenge for the lead as soon as everyone worked back up to speed. And he was right - Tony Stewart passed him on the first lap after the green flag.

But Stewart didn't win, either. For the third straight race at Daytona, the driver leading at the white flag was not the winner. This time, Ryan Newman got a big drafting push from Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch and won the 500.

Last July, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch traded the lead five times over the final six laps as McMurray rallied off the final turn for the win. In the 2007 Daytona 500, Kevin Harvick pulled to the outside on the final run down the backstretch and edged Mark Martin at the finish.

In a sport in which the term "track position" seems to become more important each week, the meaning of those words can be different here. It's not just about where you are in the running order, it's also about where you put your car on the track.

"At other race tracks, track position is being in the right place with 50 laps to go so you can be in the right place on the last lap," Burton said. "Here, it's more about being in the right place and the last lap. You can be running dead last on the lead lap with 50 to go and still win."

Burton was fifth fastest in Thursday's Cup practice. Kurt Busch had the fastest lap, but he blew a right-front tire late in the session. Busch hit the wall in the No. 2 Dodge that finished second in February, forcing him to a backup car. A second practice session was rained out.

Qualifying for Saturday night

Tony Stewart sharply defended crew chief Greg Zipadelli's decision to pit late in last weekend's race at New Hampshire, saying "it's easy to be an armchair quarterback."

Stewart dominated the race but wound up 13th when officials stopped it 17 laps early because of rain. Zipadelli called for the late pit stop - most of the leaders followed suit - and Stewart found himself in the middle of the pack when the rain started a few minutes later. Many of Stewart's fans were critical this week of Zipadelli's call.

"You see all of this criticism from people and it's people who can't even control their own lives and they want to sit here and tell us how to run race teams on the weekend," Stewart said. "I find that highly amusing that people think that they've got a better solution all the time than what we do.

"It's easy after it's all over to say, 'Well you should've done this. What was he thinking?'

"If they were that smart, they would be crew chiefs, and obviously they're not that smart listening to the criticism. It just frustrates you as a driver knowing that you've got a crew chief that's won two championships and 30-plus races with you that people think they are a lot smarter than, and they're not."

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Left: "We can't drill our way out of this!"
Right: "We can't conserve our way out of this!"
Chorus: "We must innovate our way out of this!"

(Maybe, but how long will that take? What will it cost? Who will pay?)

Democrats: "Big Oil's fault! Confiscate their profits!"
Republicans: "Environmentalists' fault! Drill here, drill now, pay less!"
Chorus: "Speculators' fault! Pass a law!"

(So, investing in things -- stocks, bonds, collector cars, commodities such as oil -- that may, or may not, increase in value in the future should be illegal?)

The price of just about anything is mostly about supply and demand. This is Rule #1 of Economics 101 -- which they made me take, along with English, history and a few other useful things, in engineering school:

1. Demand goes up, supply doesn't: price goes up
2. Demand goes down, supply doesn't: price goes down
3. Supply goes up, demand doesn't: price goes down

Oil will bring whatever buyers are willing to pay and sellers are willing to take, and buyers are willing to pay very dearly these days. Nearly all economic activity runs on oil, and it is extremely difficult for any society to reduce its usage without cheap and plentiful alternatives.

Petroleum products are not just in transportation tanks; they are in almost all consumer products. Take off your jacket, check your watch, dial your phone, boot up your computer, plug in your iPod - these things and nearly everything else contain them as fundamental elements.

Most things consume oil as they are manufactured, and all things consume it as fuel in shipment to market. And so, as we have been learning all too painfully lately, as the price of oil goes up, the price of everything follows in the same direction. So, given that the price of oil depends mostly on supply and demand, what can we do to drag it back down? Reduce demand? Increase supply? Yes, and yes! Anyone who thinks we can make enough difference by working just one end of that equation is wishfully thinking.

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading At Witz' End - Gas Prices - What To Do, What To Do?

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Cup Series points leader Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya haven't made amends following last week's on-track altercation at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Busch said Thursday that he hasn't spoken to Montoya and doesn't plan to.

"It's over with. That was last week," Busch said.

Montoya, saying he didn't like the way Busch was racing him for position, intentionally spun Busch late in the race and ended up wrecking both cars. NASCAR eventually assessed Montoya a two-lap penalty for rough driving. Busch finished 25th, seven spots higher than Montoya.

"It's NASCAR's discretion at what they want to do to penalize people," Busch said. "I'm confident in their judgment."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he was surprised to see cars wreck under caution, but he also said Montoya isn't one to get pushed around.

"Juan's a little firecracker, man," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He's a good guy, but you just don't push his buttons.

"You've got to respect him on the race track. He has to sort of have that mentality coming from Formula One. He definitely doesn't want to get pushed around. He's not having the best season. He's obviously not very happy with how his car is running up to this point, so he's got even a shorter fuse because of that."