The competition in Sprint Cup is even fiercer and her learning curve will be steep.
Once Kenseth cleared his teammate, he had clear sailing toward his 27th career Sprint Cup victory.
When you race in the Sprint Cup Series, Bristol is a race you want to win.
Inside his car, Mark Martin failed in his bid to become the oldest Sprint Cup winner.
Johnson, a five-time Sprint Cup champion, won the Daytona 500 for the second time.
The Nascar Sprint Cup Series remains the second highest rated regular season sport on television.
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Patrick, 30, is in her first full year as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Driver.
Last year she made 10 Sprint Cup starts , qualifying no better than 23rd.
Jimmie Johnson, Nascar's Sprint Cup Series champion every year since 2006, isn't particularly charismatic.
GoDaddy will sponsor Patrick next year when she graduates from Nationwide to a full-time Sprint Cup schedule.
Partial credit goes to crossover star and Sprint Cup rookie of the year candidate Danica Patrick.
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The five-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion is the only driver to win five consecutive championships.
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Keselowski went on to win five Cup races in 2012, as well as the Sprint Cup title.
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Gordon also benefits from his ownership stake in the car of five-time Sprint Cup champ Jimmie Johnson.
She ranked ninth on Fanatics.com in merchandise sales in 2012, despite only racing in 10 Sprint Cup events.
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The incident occurred on lap 121 of the 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
Kenseth had won three times here in the Nationwide Series, but had never come closer than third in Sprint Cup.
The last Phoenix race, in November, set up Keselowski for his first Sprint Cup title after Johnson blew a tire.
The accident happened the day before the Sprint Cup Series season-opening Daytona 500 NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl.
Busch ended up in second, .002 seconds behind in Sprint Cup's closest finish since it went to electronic timing in 1993.
It was the first time a women won the pole at Daytona or at any Sprint Cup event for that matter.
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Danica Patrick improved on her placing in her second Sprint Cup race at Darlington, finishing 28th three spots better than in 2012.
Patrick, 30, is currently enjoying her first full year as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver after racing open-wheel IndyCars for several years.
Patrick would get a full-time Sprint Cup ride with SHR in 2013.
And her new romance with fellow Sprint Cup rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has only spiced up the storyline behind the Danica 500.
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Daytona, the season's kickoff extravaganza, marks the race-day debut of Nascar's "Gen-6" Sprint Cup car, the series's most innovative overhaul since 2007.
His win was the 50th for Toyota in Sprint Cup Series competition.
The 54-year-old became the second-oldest driver to start on the pole in a Sprint Cup car, a few months short of Harry Gant's mark.
And congratulations to Tony Stewart on his third Sprint Cup Championship.
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