Editor's note: Yahoo! Sports is counting down the top 20 drivers of the 2012 season, as predicted by the Yahoo! Sports NASCAR staff – Jay Hart, Jay Busbee, Nick Bromberg and Geoffrey Miller. The countdown will conclude on Feb. 17 with the unveiling of the No. 1 driver.

(Getty Images)

2011 statistics

Finish	Poles	Wins	Top 5	Top 10
19	0	1	5	12

The countdown

No. 20: Marcos Ambrose | Career stats

No. 19: Revealed Tuesday, Jan. 24

2011 finish: 19th

Our 2012 predictions:
• Jay Hart: Not ranked
• Jay Busbee: 19th
• Nick Bromberg: Not ranked
• Geoffrey Miller: 19th

Crew chief: Todd Parrott

Offseason action: Gained a new teammate in Aric Almirola.

2012 outlook: In some ways, 2011 was a breakthrough year for Marcos Ambrose. He finally won a race, getting that monkey off his back he'd carried ever since he gave away the victory at Sonoma in 2010. Plus, he managed to finish inside the top 20 for the first time in his three-year Cup career.

But is this enough for a driver used to winning

In between talking about how much fun he's having "old school" racing and how he needs to learn how to better handle adversity better, Kurt Busch let it be known that he's focused on the big "prize": 2013.

"Yes, 2012 is going to be a unique year for somebody such as myself," Busch said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. "But to take a step back for me personally and look at all of this, this is what I need. And all along we're going to keep our eyes on the prize in 2013."

And according to Busch, he could have several quality options.

After being cast away from Penske Racing in early December in what he's described as a mutual parting of the ways, Busch said he talked to a number of team owners about 2012, including Richard Childress, Michael Waltrip and Richard Petty, who on Thursday said he didn't sign Busch because sponsors were leery of the 2004 champion.

"It was weird to hear his comments yesterday because he was ready to throw me in the car and we would have been down the

Friday morning at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR requested drivers give pack racing a try. They complied in the afternoon test session – everyone but Jimmie Johnson that is – for about a dozen laps, then it was back to two-car drafting.

For those who don't like the tandem drafting, here's the good news: The changes NASCAR made have diminished the speed advantage the two-car draft provides. Two cars weren't passing single cars at the rate they once did, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. suggested pack racing could be quick enough to hang with a two-car draft.

Now here's the bad news: "That tandem stuff is going to win the race," Earnhardt predicted on SPEED.

"No doubt," backed Kyle Busch.

What Friday's testing suggested is that this year's Daytona 500 could be a combination of pack racing and two-car drafting. If the speed discrepancies between the two styles remain relatively minimal, drivers may decide to pack up during the early portion of the race, log laps, keep their bumpers intact

Richard Petty cited sponsors weary of Kurt Busch's personality as the reason the 2004 champion wasn't offered the opportunity to drive the famed No. 43.

"Nobody at the time wanted to pay the bill for him," Petty said Thursday. "That's just how simple it was."

The seat became available when AJ Allmendinger left Richard Petty Motorsports to take over the ride Busch vacated when he and Penske Racing decided to part ways in December. At the time, the 43 car was without a sponsor, which led to RPM releasing Allmendinger from his contract.

"This [was] going to help us because we get out from under our obligation to AJ," Petty explained. "AJ's got a good ride, and Penkse winds up with a good driver."

RPM was already in talks with Smithfield Foods as a potential sponsor of the 43. Petty said they floated the idea of putting Busch in the seat, but sponsors balked.

"Everybody's got to protect their brand," Petty explained. "Smithfield's got a pretty laid-back, pretty down-home personality. If

Did the new rules NASCAR imposed at Daytona break up the two-car draft fans railed against a year ago?

Nope, and the few cars that did run nose-to-tail showed the Daytona 500 could be full of carnage.

The winter break is officially over (for most drivers; more on that later), with cars back on the track Thursday for a three-day test session at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the Feb. 26 Daytona 500. And it didn't take long to see the impact of NASCAR's new rules package.

Forty-four minutes into the second test session, new teammates Mark Martin and Clint Bowyer were hooked up in a two-car draft. But less than two laps later, Bowyer got sent spinning as Martin tried to make the swap.

The difficulty? The smaller spoiler, which makes for less stable race cars.

"The cars move around quite a bit more than they did and when we made that switch, he went to go underneath me and it just pulled the air and turned me around," Bowyer explained on SPEED. "I don't know what the fix

Aric Almirola will drive the No. 43 for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2012. For Almirola, it's the opportunity he's been after for years. For RPM, it's a gamble.

Almirola has 35 Cup starts over a four-year span, the last coming in 2010 driving for … Richard Petty Motorsports. In his brief Cup career, he's posted one top-five finish and two top 10s, and his most extensive season was 12 starts in 2008.

While his Cup résumé is thin, that could just be because he's never been given a full chance. He bolstered his stature after finishing fourth in the Nationwide Series driving for JR Motorsports in 2011.

"This is the first real opportunity I’ve had to drive in the Cup Series full time," Almirola said in a statement. "Last year, the No. 43 team had a lot of speed and was competitive on a weekly basis. Greg Erwin is a great crew chief and I'm excited to work with him. Everyone at Richard Petty Motorsports has a lot of enthusiasm and drive, and I'm really looking forward to getting to work."

The 2011 Sprint Cup season started and ended with total shockers, which was entirely appropriate considering nothing went according to the script in the eight months in between.

Among the surprises:

• Four of the year's biggest races were won by Trevor Bayne (Daytona 500), Regan Smith (Southern 500), David Ragan (Coke 400) and Paul Menard (Brickyard 400), who had a combined zero Cup victories going into the season.

• Brad Keselowski won three races, finished fifth in the standings and became the most outspoken driver in the garage – all after breaking his ankle.

• Jeff Burton didn't record a top-10 finish until August.

• Red Bull said see ya later to NASCAR.

• Danica Patrick's announcement that she'll compete in NASCAR full time in 2012 wasn't a surprise, but the fact that she'll enter 10 Cup races was.

• Clint Bowyer signed with Michael Waltrip Racing after he couldn't reach a contract agreement with Richard Childress

One by one the dominos fell as the 2011 Sprint Cup field molded itself into the one we'll see when the green flag drops on the 2012 Daytona 500. Some of those dominos were expected to be in play, such as Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer. Others, like Kurt Busch, were not.

Here is a look at the winners and losers in one of NASCAR's silliest seasons in a long time:

Edwards: He looked over the fence to see if the grass really is greener on the other side and found he had a good thing going right where he was. Staying with Roush Fenway looks like the right choice, as Edwards very nearly won his first Cup championship. Verdict: Winner

Roush Racing: Keeping Edwards in house was a major victory for Jack Roush and Ford. The manufacturer doesn't have a lot of star power, if only because its stable of drivers isn't very large to begin with. Losing Edwards would have left both Roush and Ford without a big-time sponsor magnet. They won't have to think about that for awhile now. Roush also landed Best