Ugly clouds as the pre-race ceremonies begin for the Daytona 500. At least Michael Waltrip is in a car and not on the desk. Small blessings. Looks like rain to me.
I’m less than excited about this race. Paul Menard said he was going to take care of his car for 490 miles and race the last ten. Well that sounds less than thrilling. Moody spent time during the week trying to convince his listeners that drivers riding around for the majority of the race and racing for the finish was the only reasonable thing to do and therefore a good thing. Oddly I thought the people who bought tickets bought tickets to the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup RACE that is contested by 43 PROFESSIONAL RACE CAR DRIVERS. Now, I understand the need to be there at the end of the race, but I also know that race fans didn’t spend their hard-earned money to watch (mostly) rich guys take care of their equipment for 490 miles and race 10 miles. Moody said the drivers’ jobs are to win the race. I thought their job was to race for 500 miles. Of course Angie seems to think their job is to make their sponsors happy at whatever cost without regard for racing or fans. I’m not into marketing in general, so NASCAR as a marketing tool/exercise is less than interesting to me and I’m seeing signs that indicate that is the future of the sport as the new rules are announced and implemented. Oh well, I’m not the target audience anyway. I’m just an avid NASCAR fan (not a Twitter fan, not a Facebook fan, not an 18-30 year old guy), and apparently not relevant to the current NASCAR regime.
Kyle Busch beat Timothy Peters across the line to win the Truck Race. I was happy for KyBu, but bummed for TP. NASCAR is now talking about limiting the number of double duty races for Sprint Cup drivers, because apparently there was a Twitter/Facebook expression of outrage.
Regan Smith won a boring Nationwide Race.
The Daytona 500 began in a mild manner, but was stopped for rain on lap 38. Unsurprisingly Kyle Larson got into the wall twice early on. Too many rookies. At 195 mph its too dangerous for rookies to be out there learning to drive a Cup car, but okay. Since all NASCAR wants are teenagers behind the wheel and in front of their television screens and in the stands, maybe this will work for them – or maybe they don’t have the patience/loyalty to wait around for a race, and maybe they should start an X Games type division for the kids – give the kids with more balls than brains the opportunity to compete in the X Division (maybe the Nationwide Series could go X) and the kids with more talent could go on the Cup path. So instead of trying to make people pay a premium for qualifying, instead run the X division on Friday night – shorter races with wild rules and lots of action – to use a professional wrestling – term all high spots. The talented drivers get an invitation to the Cup division, the wild racers grow the X-division so the original group become the Frank Kimmel of the X Division in a few years. Just an idea off the top of my head, but I’m digging the notion.
After more than six hours the race restarted and was racing toward weather again. They showed a radar shot and a massive area of rain seemed to be moving toward the track. Martin Truex Jr. blew up before the initial ran delay and was the only car out of the race. Clint Bowyer blew up after the rain delay and said he wished it would’ve blown up four hours ago so he could’ve been sitting at home watching the race. Tony Stewart is in the garage as they attempt to diagnose the problem with his car.
Michael Annett spun onto pit road. Kasey Kahne was coming down for a pit stop and had to gas it to get out of harm’s way and got dinged for speeding on pit road. He was livid to get a penalty under those circumstance.
As we come back from commercial on lap 145 of 200 a big wreck is happening including Danica, Gilliland, Mikey Waltrip. Kevin Harvick came up and Brian Scott went up to avoid him and Almirola hit the wall trying to get away from Scott, Justin Allgaier, and Kasey Kahne got some, Paul Menard, Josh Wise, Jeff Gordon and Austin Dillon got some. Dale Jr is leading the race right now as we’re under caution. Brian Scott is back on the racetrack after making some repairs. Ambrose, and Stenhouse were also involved in this 12 car incident. Danica apparently hit a portion of the wall without the SAFER barrier. It was a hard hit.
Just as we went to commercial Mike Joy said, “Dare I say it, we’ve been caution free up to this point.” Bunny D said, “Shut up Mike Joy. He could’ve gone all night without saying that, because everytime he says that something happens.” The wreck was underway as we came out of the commercial break.
By the way, I’m hating that new scoreboard. It’s too small. I can’t see it! I’d prefer to not have to check the internet for the running order (which is typically a little delayed), but I guess I will have to going forward, until the coverage switches from FOX.
Mike Joy said the storm system is 30 miles from the track and contains a lot of lightning.
Kill the KFC Pot Pie Guy! I hate these commercials. Michael Waltrip wrecked out. I hope he goes home, or to a pit box and stays off the desk.
Kurt Busch has a rear quarter panel flapping. Jeff Gordon said he doesn’t think he got any real damage.
With 39 to go Marcos Ambrose, Reed Sorenson, Kyle Larson, Michael Annett all involved. Austin Dillon got into the back of Kyle Larson and turned him in front of Marcos Ambrose. Kasey Kahne, Brian Scott, Casey Mears, Bobby Labonte, and Brian Vickers got some of that also.
17 to go Trevor Bayne brings out the caution hitting the wall.
With 14 laps to go the storm system has stalled a little bit, so it looks like we might make it to the end. Dale Jr restarts with 13 laps to go and drops down in front of Jimmie Johnson.
With 11 to go Kurt Busch goes for a spin and everything stays green. He spins into the grass at pit road.
With 7 to go Ryan Newman, Justin Allgaier, Brian Scott, Parker Kilgerman, Terry Labonte, and are all involved in a wreck. Austin Dillon turned Newman by getting in the back of him and spun him in front of the back of the field.
Unfortunately Michael Waltrip has made it to the desk and has a microphone
Dale Jr has some debris on his grill and is trying to get it off using the pace car. It looks like bara-bond. He ran over it. It isn’t coming off. Looks like its going to be a green, white, checkered finish.
Wreck coming to the checkered flag as Reed Sorenson and Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr WINS!!! Steve Letarte’s final opportunity to win the Daytona 500 is successful! Kyle Busch backed down pit road to cross the finish line after getting caught up in the final lap wreck.
Dale Jr is doing a Polish Victory lap and waving his fist for the fans. He’s so happy. The fans are crowded around the fence.
Harvick hit Jamie Mc, Kyle Busch, and others on the final lap.
Its been 10 years since Dale Jr last won the Daytona 500. He hugged every member of his team before coming to do the tv interview after getting out of the car in Victory Lane. He gave Mr. Hendrick a ride in the window to Victory Lane.
He says there’s 11 coats of clear coat on the car on top of the details as an example of how much hard work the team put in.
Denny is thoroughly bummed with big, dark circles under his eyes.
Keselowski was sure he was going to win the race and is highly pissed that he didn’t.
This is Stevie Letarte’s first and last Daytona 500 victory since he’s going to the announce booth next year.
The rain did wonders for this race. What began as a boring single-file affair turned into an exciting, dramatic, satisfying race. Reminds me of the Daytona 500/superspeedway racing I fell in love with.
Since the drivers all thought rain was imminent they actually RACED the whole race! That’s what I love. That’s what they’re paid to do. That’s what NASCAR needs to bring back the fans.
Jeff Gordon is beside himself with happiness for Dale Jr. Jeff said after the rain everybody’s brain flipped over and it was a shootout. He says three Hendrick cars finished in the top five, so he’s so happy for Hendrick Motorsports so Jimmie finished fifth, behind Jeff Gordon.
Top five:
- 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Brad Keselowski
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson