Daytona Beach, Fla. — The plan is workin’. So far.

The plan will have been a 100-percent success should Bill Elliott pull into victory lane on Sunday.

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In just a few days, one of the most-anticipated races of them all will be run at Daytona International Speedway. And, Elliott and the Wood Brothers will be there.

Elliott completed a near-perfect weekend on Sunday by qualifyin’ the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Ford Fusion fifth overall—but more importantly, fastest among all of the teams that weren’t in the top 35 in points, and thus already locked in.

(Ol’ Sparky likes the word thus—especially in sports. It’s something the Sparkster imagines would’ve been said at halftime of a Harvard-Yale football game decades ago. “Gentlemen, we have been out-played through the first half hour of this contest, and, thus, we must improve our performance over the final two quarters to have any hope at all in reaching our aspiration of being the higher scoring of today’s two teams.”)

Regardless of who finds Victory Lane on Sunday, the Sparkster surmises that the word “thus” will not be uttered.

Oh, well.

Elliott’s qualifying effort occurred after he was the fastest in both of the previous day’s practice sessions.

It was in stark contrast of what happened at Daytona a year ago, when Elliott and the Woods did not qualify.

It was the first time that the famed race team from Stuart, Virginia, had missed the Great American Race, and it certainly didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem right, at all.

That was just the first of more than one frustratin’ weekends for the Woods in ’08, so this year, they decided to implement a different plan.

The plan could’ve been based on how the Woods approached racing in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and half of the ’80s: Don’t show up every week, but when you do, race to win.

That’s a plan that worked quite well through the days of Glen Wood and Marvin Panch and Tiny Lund and Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt and David Pearson.

It was a very good plan, a plan that resulted in nearly 100 NASCAR victories.

And, this year, that’s the plan the Woods are followin’. They won’t be at the track every week, but when they are, they’ll be there to win.

Ol’ Sparky’s referrin’ to it as the Way Back plan.

And, did anybody pick up that Elliott very well could’ve earned the pole? But, right then, it was more important to make the race. It is, after all, the biggest race of the year.

There was only room on Sunday for three non-top-35ers to actually lock into the Great American Race, and joinin’ Elliott as one of the other two was Travis Kvapil, driver of the No. 28 Ford Fusion.

And, the two newest Ford Racing drivers were mighty impressive: Bobby Labonte, in the No. 96 Ford Fusion, and Paul Menard, in the No. 98 Ford Fusion.

So, as of right now, there are nine Fords in the field—regardless of what happens on Thursday, when a 10th, Boris Said, could be added. And, don’t forget how good Boris Said is on the superspeedways—especially Daytona.

And, so, with all of that good happenin’, Ol’ Sparky decided that would, indeed, make the trip south.

The Sparkster fully understands that his presence—or lack thereof—has absolutely bearin’ on whether a Ford will end up in Victory Lane.

But, with the way things have been goin’ at Daytona, the Sparkster is at least hopin’ that’s the case.

Because it sure would be nice to see the Blue Oval leadin’ the way when the checkered flag drops Sunday evenin’.

Jamie McMurray looked like he had the car to beat for quite some time on Saturday night, and he’s won in that No. 26 Ford Fusion at Daytona in the past—although in the July race.

Greg Biffle has won at Daytona in the No. 16 Ford Fusion—but that, too, was in the July race.

So, the weather is warm—let’s just pretend this is July, okay?

And, let’s hope that the race weekend is just that: the race weekend, because the NHRA Full Throttle opened its season last weekend, uh, week, and showed that a race weekend in Pomona can last as long as a NASCAR weekend at, say, Michigan in August.

Why else would you run a race on Tuesday?

John Force Racing and Bob Tasca showed they were ready for 2009 when those five cars all qualified in the top five. Tasca was fifth, the best startin’ spot of his one year plus one race career.

After Daytona, NASCAR heads out to Fontana, which is not too far from Pomona, and don’t forget, it rained quite a bit the last time the stock-car drivers visited in February. Hopefully, this year, the racin’ won’t be on Tuesday.

Whille makin’ travelin’ plans, the Sparkster went through this week’s mailbag.

Hey, Sparky:

I know that you spend most of your time following the NASCAR circuit, but there are other forms of racing, you know—and Ford happens to do quite well. I’m going to guess that you weren’t there when the 40th anniversary Cobra Jet won in its debut at Pomona this week, but, then again, I might guess that you were there in 1968 when the original Cobra Jet won it’s debut. Didn’t somebody once say that history does repeat itself? I guess it’s a good thing that the Cobra Jet has such a good history.

Your pal,
Norman
Oklahoma

Norman, you are indeed a pal of Sparky, but give the Sparkster credit for following the progress of the new CJ. Although Sparky was not there 40 years ago when the original Cobra Jets won in Pomona, he was pleased to see one with this week out there. It's quite a credit to the engineers at Ford Racing, who created a new race car that won right out of the box. And it's not the first time, since they did it with the Mustang FR500C a few years ago. But it's also credit to one of your fellow Oklahomans—Brent Hajek—who bought the first CJ's and decided to prepare them to compete, and win, this week. A good day for Ford, Mustang and Oklahoma.