This year's race promises to be one of the most competitive in the history of the event, which first ran on the old beach course in 1937. The race also kicks off the 25th anniversary of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. 

Australian Mat Mladin, the defending AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike champ, last year's Daytona 200 winner and the 2000 AMA/Speedvision Pro Athlete of the Year, is set to make his sixth appearance on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway's 3.56-mile road course. Mladin, who will turn 29 the day before the 200, nipped young Honda ace Nicky Hayden at the line last year by a mere .011 seconds in the second-closest finish in the history of the 200. 

Mladin is in the prime of his career and had a strong winter-testing season making him the odds-on favorite to win this year's race. Team Suzuki newcomer Jamie Hacking and Aaron Yates join Mladin on the team. 

Hayden, the 19-year-old from Owensboro, Ky., who came within inches of becoming the youngest winner of the Daytona 200 last year, was considered perhaps the equal to Mladin at Daytona coming into this year's race. A testing crash in November left him with a hairline fracture in his left wrist. Unfortunately for Hayden the break went undetected until the end of February so he will have to endure the grueling 200-miler, as well as practice and qualifying leading up to the race, with the wrist heavily braced. He is slated to have surgery on the wrist the Monday after the 200, but the injury seems likely to hurt Hayden's changes. 

With Hayden's injury, his Honda teammates Miguel Duhamel and Kurtis Robert are expected by many to pose the biggest challenge to Mladin. Duhamel is a three-time Daytona 200 winner and the all-time winningest rider in AMA Superbike history with 23 victories. After battling through injuries for several seasons he is healthy and ready to make another run at the AMA Superbike championship he last won in 1995. 

Roberts, the 22-year-old son of motorcycle racing legend Kenny Roberts, will be making his AMA Superbike race debut at Daytona. The young Californian is coming off a stellar 2000 campaign that saw him win the Pro Honda Oils 600 SuperSport and Formula Xtreme titles. Roberts hopes to become only the second son of a former Daytona 200 winner to win the race. Floyd (1948) and Don Emde (1972) are the only father and son combination to have won the race. Kenny Roberts won the race three times (1978, 1983 & 1984). 

Yamaha has won the Daytona 200 more than any other manufacturer with 18 victories. The company hopes to add to the tally this year and have the talented Australian Anthony Gobert in their camp. Gobert, 25, wears a Rolex Daytona that he won for earning the pole at Daytona in 1999. Gobert and his teammate Tommy Hayden should give Yamaha its best shot at winning the 200 since Scott Russell's 1998 triumph. 

Speaking of Russell, the lanky Georgian comes to Daytona this year with renewed hope of extending his record number of Daytona 200 victories to six. Russell, 36, is riding for Ducati this year and hopes to give that company its first Daytona 200 win. Ducati has arguably its strongest effort ever at Daytona. The factory fields two teams and has a talented roster that includes Russell, Steve Rapp, Larry Pegram and New Zealander Aaron Slight, fresh off the World Superbike circuit. 

Sitting quietly in the wings is the powerful Kawasaki team of Doug Chandler and Eric Bostrom. Chandler has come agonizingly close to winning the big one so many times (he has four Daytona 200 podium appearances), and at 35 realizes he probably won't have many chances in front of him to win the 200. Bostrom will be making only his second run in the 200 and, along with Nick Hayden and Kurtis Roberts, is considered one of the young lions of Superbike racing. 

Harley-Davidson's Superbike team went through a major reorganization this winter and the manufacturer has rededicated itself to become competitive in AMA Superbike racing. The American maker, which has won Daytona 16 times dating back to 1938, will field Canadian Pascal Picotte and Georgian Mike Smith. Picotte won the pole for the 200 back in 1994 while riding for Ducati and Smith is a two-time winner of the Daytona 600 SuperSport race.  

Riders Preview the event
Mladin - Russell - Hayden - Duhamel

2001 Daytona Preview

The History of Daytona and past winners