Last weekend was the official start of the 2007 NASCAR season, with the Daytona 500. Since Dale's accident in 2001, I hadn't had a favorite driver. I would watch as often as I could, but I never seemed to get involved as much as I'd like. This year, I decided to try a little harder to watch more races and stay informed about the season. I started with the Budweiser Shootout on the tenth, and that night I chose a new drive to follow: David Gilliland.

His first time at Daytona, the Yates Team driver finished second to Tony Stewart. He said, "I've always dreamed about racing here at Daytona and to be able to come and do it -- my first race ever and bring home a second-place finish -- is a dream come true." A new addition to the NASCAR lineup, David Gilliand has potential and determination, and I think that's part of the reason I've chosen him as my replacement for Dale. Not only did he have a great finish at the Shootout, he went on to land the pole position in qualifying for the 500 - next to his teammate, Ricky Rudd. His performance on the big night was anything but beginner's luck.

Starting first in any race is definitely not a guarantee that you will win . . . or even be in the top ten. That's just a fact of life. So going into the race, I didn't think that he was most people's pick to win. I wasn't expecting him to drop from first to last with a bump on pit-road. But in NASCAR, circumstances can change quickly (ask Mark Martin, who thought sure he had won the race on a caution flag, only to find out that they waited to throw it until the two lead cars were past the finish line). As I saw his standing move from 1 to 42 on Lap 83, I almost gave up hope of my driver even landing in the top half. Almost.

Down a lap in Lap 132, he finally got his break in Lap 154 to catch back up to the back end when the caution flag flew. That's all he needed to start his comeback. He quickly went from 35 to 25, and the number kept getting smaller. I told my wife that he would end up winning the race. She said he'd be lucky to end up in the top ten. As the race continued, I watched his place climb, little by little, until he had reached 12th by Lap 190. With ten laps to go, the #38 M&M car pushed into 12th place, and four laps later, he was number 4. The night was getting exciting.

Then a major wreck pulled the red flag, and all cars came to a dead stop. The tension was building. Staring at all those cars, just sitting on the track, I could tell that something big was going to happen. Not an ideal way to end a race, the drivers were looking at a green-white-checkered finish, meaning they would go one lap on green, one on white (signaling the last lap) and then the checkered flag would fly.

Fourth place . . . almost a top-five finish for the comeback kid of the night. From first to last, and back to fourth - it almost seemed to good to be true. As they ran the last laps, I held out hope that he could get low enough to round the lead cars and go on to victory, but in the last few seconds of the race, things started to fall apart. Out of nowhere came Kevin Harvick. Gilliland tried to go up, but he started losing spots and cars started crashing all around him. One even ended up sliding across the finish line on its top. When the smoke cleared, the debris landed, and all of the out-of-control cars came to a stop, the final stats had David Gilliland in eighth place.

First to last to fourth to eighth - that's the story of the M&M car. Impossible situations, and improbable odds were no match for David Gilliland. He fought with everything he had, and he never accepted defeat. All the way to the end, his performance promised a fantastic finish. The wreck in the last seconds claimed his top-five finish, but it definitely didn't touch his determination. "...so stuff happens. It's Daytona and a green-white-checkered finish."

I'm convinced that we haven't seen anything yet from the #38 Ford Fusion, and I'll keep my eyes on those red, yellow, blue and green M&Ms.