DAYTONA BEACH -- This certainly wasn't one of my finest moments in a long, distinguished journalism career, but it's better to be honest than to pretend otherwise: Fresh off his thrilling victory in the Nationwide race earlier today at Daytona International Speedway, I asked Regan Smith how he liked his chances for a repeat in Sunday's Daytona 500 as one of 43 drivers in the field.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Fireball Roberts was the early leader of the 1960 Daytona 500 run on Feb. 14, but he would end up out of the race with engine problems and Junior Johnson took over and won the crash-marred affair.

He started ninth and was at home in North Carolina until a week earlier when he was convinced by Masoni to race. Masoni even supplied him with a car, a 1959 Chevrolet, sponsored by the Daytona Kennel.

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Wikipedia /

DAYTONA BEACH -- Johnny Beauchamp won the inaugural Daytona 500 on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 22, 1959, or did he?

There was no Warner Wolfe back then with with "lets go to the videotape," or digital cameras measuring in milliseconds. But there was a photo and it was what NASCAR used to take the win away from Beauchamp and give it to Lee Petty, father of Richard Petty and grandfather of Kyle Petty, beginning a family racing tradition.

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet has the pole for Sunday's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Sunday's line-up for the Daytona 500 features the traditional and the non-traditional.

For example, the No. 3 is on the pole. That's tradition, as it was the number of NASCAR's greatest driver, Dale Earnhardt, the 1998 Daytona 500 winner, tragically killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Joe Gibs racers sweep nighttime races

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joe Gibbs Racing swept the inaugural nighttime running of the Budweiser Duel at Daytona with Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin finishing atop the scoring pylon in their respective 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Kenseth, who led a race-high 31 laps in the first qualifying race, was the victor in a three-wide finish at the checkered flag, edging out Kevin Harvick by .022 seconds with Kasey Kahne a close third.

DAYTONA BEACH – Marco Rubio, the Republican junior senator from Florida and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement today from Washington regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and condemned Russian influence and corruption that he sees as a hindrance to the sovereign peoples in the former Soviet republic.

Report Card Grade: F

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Term-limited Volusia County Councilwoman Pat Northey of Deltona who has taken the unprecdented political step of trying to wrest fellow Democrat Joyce Cusack's at-large seat from her in this year's elections in a three-way race that includes conservative Republican Webster Barnaby, puts outr a nine-page 'newsletter' on the county's website that reads like a campaign press release. The 24/7 internet newspaper has written to Supervisor of Elections Ann McFall as to whether Northey's Volusia County Council District 5 County Council Update violates campaign protocol or election law. The latter appears at the end of this report card notebook.

DAYTONA BEACH -- All that's missing from term-limited County Councilwoman Pat Northey's latest newsletter is the fine print: "Political ad paid for and approved by Patricia Northey, candidate for Volusia County Council at-large seat, 2014 elections."

DAYTONA BEACH -- Speedweeks will bring heavy traffic to Volusia County with Thursday's Budweiser Duel races at Daytona International Speedway, and calumniating with Sunday'a running of the Daytona 500, which will impact Votran bus services.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Kandas Baker is shown here in a Volusia County jail mug following her arrest in December on meth lab-related drug charges.

OAK HILL -- A tip to narcotics agents led to the discovery of a meth lab in the home of a 43-year-old Oak Hill woman.

Agents with the East Volusia Narcotics Task Force responded Dec. 10 to Kandas Baker’s home on Bills Hill Road to investigate a complaint about drug activity.

They asked Baker if there were drugs or anything else illegal inside the home. Baker said there wasn’t and agreed to let agents come in and look around, Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said.

"When they got to Baker’s bedroom, they found all the makings of a meth cooking operation, including digital scales, lithium batteries, battery cutters, Sudafed, coffee filters, Coleman fuel, lithium strips, drain opener, rubber tubing and plastic bags containing approximately 4 grams of meth," Davidson said.