Cars in field: 40
Pole: Joey Logano (22)
Outside pole: Michael McDowell (34)
Stages: 65-65-70
Weather: Sunny, 62 degrees, 12 mph wind
They showed my absolute favorite shot of the field taking the banking in turn four and going through the back stretch. The camera wasn’t too far away to actually see the cars. The sky is blue. The field was two-by-two. It gave me chills. I love a beautifully shot super-speedway race. It’s awe inspiring.
They lasted to lap 4 of 200 before showing a goofy shot – a split screen of the racing and a shot of a child in the stands pointing. Luckily it didn’t last long. Back to the on-track action. You can see the colors of the cars. I miss being able ot see the car numbers though. Unless they have a goofy shot that’s too close and
Caution on lap 5 of 200 for a crash.
Harrison Burton (21) and Carson Hocevar (77) spin and collect Ryan Preece (41) bringing out the caution on lap 5 of 200. Hocevar is stuck in the wet grass and mud. Burton’s car is wrecked. Burton came back up on the track in front of the field. Jimmie Johnson (84) hit Hocevar when he spun back up the track. The John Hunter Nemechek (42) bumped Burton who turned sideways in front of Carson Hocevar and both went spinning into the infield grass, then the 21 spun back onto the track in front of Ryan Preece and Hocevar spun back onto the track in front of Jimmie Johnson then back into the grass where the car got stuck. Kaz Grala, and Austin Dillon (3) were also collected in the incident.
Restarting on lap 11 of 200 with Christopher Bell (20) and Ryan Blaney (12) on the front row after staying out during the pit sequence.
MRN reports AJ Allmendinger (16) will need to serve a pass-thru penalty. After the restart MRN reports it was a choose lane violation that caused Allmendinger to start at the tail-end of the field.
Rusty Wallace on MRN reports Austin Dillon (3) has gone behind the pit wall to the garage.
MRN’s Kim Coon reports on lap 20 of 200 that Austin Dillon (3) met minimum speed, but they had a lot of damage to the car so they opted to take it to the garage for repairs.
For reasons beyond me MRN’s Jeff Striegle has turned over his mic to PRN’s Doug Rice who is in the booth with them. Rice will be retiring from the PRN booth after this year. Happily, Striegle is back on the mic. Maybe Doug just wanted to call the Daytona 500 once. Since PRN is owned by SMI so he’s probably never called it. Just as I was typing this, Doug Rice said something similar while thanking Jeff, Alex, and Rusty for the honor of calling a few laps.
On lap 40 of 200 green flag pit stops are underway for the Ford cars. Two to three seconds of fuel for everyone.
Chris Buescher (17) has come into the pits by himself on lap 41 of 200.
On lap 50 of 200 Ryan Blaney (12) and Michael McDowell (34) are drafting together ad the field passes them. Blaney lost the draft after his pit stop and ended up by himself. McDowell said something is wrong with his car after his pit stop that it’s sluggish. He says he can’t get in fifth gear. MRN’s Steve ‘Postie/Postman’ says it doesn’t sound like it’s on seven cylinders, but it doesn’t sound right.
Green flag stops for Zane Smith and Ricky ‘WreckySpinhouse’ Stenhouse Jr (47).
On lap 55 of 200 the Chevys pit under green for fuel. Erik Jones stalled his race car on pit road, then gets going.
The Toyotas pit on lap 56 of 200.
Riley Herbst (15) and Chase Briscoe (14) pit on lap 57 of 200.
Noah Gragson (10) leads the Fords currently at the front of the field to pit road for their green flag stops.
The line led by Chase Elliott (9) and William ‘WillyB’ Byron (24) passed David Ragan (60) and Ryan Preece (41) who had lost the draft. MRN reports Elliott and Byron were doing 192.* while Ragan and Preece were travelling at 174 mph. They passed them like they were standing still.
Chase Elliott (9) wins stage one over teammate Kyle Larson (5).
Odd, FOX is doing a crank it up on the pit stops. That’s different. They, unfortunately, still have the radio chatter on, so it wasn’t just the sounds of the race, but it was better than usual as, somehow, they managed to keep Bowyer quiet and the radio chatter held off until the end of the segment.
John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek’s (42) car has lost power on pit road. Tyler Reddick (45) stalled his car.
Jimmie Johnson (84) and Michael McDowell (34) are both on pit road with the hood up.
Restarting on lap 70 of 200 with Kyle Larson (5) and Josh Berry (4) at the front of the field.
MRN reports the lights have just come on at the track. It’s sunny still, but the sun is behind the grandstands in turn four and the grandstands facing pit road, leaving the track in shadow in those areas.
The field has split into three lines battling for the lead. Joey Logano (22) has the lead and is trying to cover all the lanes.
The front five cars have broken away from the field which is now (lap 75 of 200) running two-by-two. They’re doing stupid camera trick now, so it’s hard to see what’s going on with the race. The field is moving and shaking – but without decent camera views I can’t only guess at what’s happening. They were doing well camera-wise, but since the last pit stop they’ve been using more of the useless camera shots than we had been seeing.
On lap 91 of 200 MRN’s Jeff Striegle reports it is 56 degrees. Only the backstretch is in the sunshine now.
Michael McDowell (34) is reportedly having battery problems and is five laps down. Jimmie Johnson (84), collected in the lap 4 crash is three laps down.
Martin Truex Jr (19) is battling Todd Gilliland (38) for the lead on lap 94 of 200. The inside lane only has about seven cars, yet they’re holding pace with the outside lane. Jimmie Johnson (84) gets passed by the field on lap 96 of 200.
On lap 106 of 200 MRN reports the spotters are trying to get the cars lined up on the bottom lane for green flag pit stops. The Fords want to stop in about three laps and the Chevrolets are listening to the chatter and plan to pit after the Fords.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) leads on lap 108 of 200.
Ryan Preece (41) takes the lead on lap 110 of 200.
On lap 111 of 200 green flag pit stops are underway. Josh Berry (4) spun into his pit box. Bubba Wallace seemed to stall trying to leave. They all got about four seconds of fuel. Ryan Preece will serve a speeding penalty.
Another group including leader Kyle Busch (8) pits on lap 114 of 200. The group is mostly Chevrolets with a few Fords mixed in.
Another mixed group pits on lap 115 of 200.
Many Fords had trouble getting into the bottom lane to pit with the other Fords resulting in the mixed groups pitting together, as the various cars pitted when they could.
Kyle Larson leads on lap 117 of 200 followed by teammate Chase Elliott,
JHN (42) ran into the back of Josh Berry causing him to spin into his pit box. That boy should not be in the Cup series. He’s still not ready. He caused the crash on lap four and has now caused pit misery for Josh Berry (4).
For unknown reasons on lap 123 of 200 as the action heats up FOX decides to put up a graphic in a split-screen making the race action barely visible.
Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric (2) are racing door-to-door as the field battles two wide.
Now FOX has gone with an idiotic three-way split screen with a driver’s hands, something weird and the race action on lap 124 of 200.
Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) drops o the bottom with Stenhouse to create an inside lane on lap 126 of 200.
The field approaches lap traffic and the inside lane tucks into the middle lane to get by the lap traffic on lap 128 of 200.
As the final lap of the stage occurs we’re stuck seeing the bumper of a couple of cars.
Finally they go to a decent shot of the race.
Ryan Blaney (12) wins stage two after pushing his teammate Austin Cindric (2) back to the lead then dumping him out of turn four to race past Cindric for the lead and stage win.
The drivers are racing and when the video shows the majority of the field the action is exciting. Unfortunately they are choosing to show idiot shows of bumpers and the sides of cars at critical times of the event. Apparently the folks making that choice don’t understand racing and therefore can’t see the exciting action on-track. The tension ramped up at the end of the stage two and the cars were racing hard for position and making moves as they were able. It was very exciting when I could see it. It is not as easily visible as a wreck in progress, but it is quite visible, when you can see the field – from outside the cars. Between the close-ups of the cars and the tires and the doors and the bumpers and the track surface actually following the action as it played out was extremely difficult, and at times, impossible.
Lovely shot of the sunset skies and of the blimp. The skies are orange, salmon, and violet. Very pretty.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) is off the pace and below the yellow line following his pit stop. The lug didn’t get attached and spun off. He’s trying to keep the tire on the car. He’s dragging the nose of the car which is trailing sparks. A replay shows that KyBu left while the front tire changer was still working on the front driver’s side tire. KyBu is so impressive. He managed to get the car back onto pit road without losing the tire. A lot of cars are topping off with one to go.
Restarting on lap 136 of 200 with teammates Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney (12) up front.
The field is three-wide on lap 144 of 200.
Corey LaJoie (7) and KyBu (8) are swapping the lead back and forth on lap 150 of 200.
The field is back to two-wide on lap 152 of 200.
We’re looking at Kyle Busch’s hood. Now on lap 167 of 200 we’re looking at a driver driving, a crew chief watching the race and a car on the track in a three-way split-screen. FOXSports gets bored and shows really boring video so that I get bored and start to wander away from the television. Bad.
On lap 177 of 200 a few cars from the back of the field come to pit road under green as Jimmie Johnson (84) is passed by the field.
The Toyotas are coming to pit road on lap 178 of 200 for their green flag stop. They’re getting about five seconds of fuel. ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) could not get into the inside lane to pit with the Toyotas.
On lap 180 of 200 Hamlin pits with KyBu (8), and Justin Haley (51).
Joey Logano (22) and the rest of the Fords pit on lap 180 of 200. The largest group to pit so far.
The Chevrolets pit on lap 182 of 200.
Michael McDowell (34) was having trouble getting his car started and drew concern that he would be stopped on pit road, but MRN’s Kim Coon reports McDowell was able to get it going.
The tension is building as the field is scrapping and shuffling. TV is spending too much time on idiot shots and breaking my growing excitement.
The field has gone three wide, though tv is showing the back of some car. Finally on lap 185 of 200 they’ve widened out the shot so we can actually see them racing.
A lot of action up front on lap 190 of 200. TV keeps trying to got for tight shots, but there’s too much action for that shot.
The Big One on lap 191 of 200 as the car in the middle lane at the front got turned. The camera was too far to see who it was.
MRN reports Ross Chastain (1), Alex Bowman (48), William Byron (24), Austin Cindric (2), Chase Elliott (9), Christopher Bell (20), Chase Briscoe (14), Kyle Busch (8), AJ Allmendinger and Erik Jones (43) have come by the without damage. everybody else got collected. MRN says Keselowski clipped Logano turning him in front of the field. MRN’s Dillon Welch reports a safety truck is stuck in the grass. WilliB got loose off a Bowman push and turned into Keselowski sending him around into Logano. suarez may have been the source of the Bowman push. no Bowman got into the back of Byron who got squirrelly and it was on.
Red flag is out on lap 192 of 200.
Caution is out after a fifteen minute plus red flag period.
Nine drivers stayed out on the pit sequence.
Restarting on lap 196 of 200 with Ross Chastain (1) and WilliB (24) on the front row.
This is so exciting!
Crashing on lap 199 of 200 as Chastain (1), Cindric (2) spin out.
William Byron was unofficially out front when they came across the line.
William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) wins under caution with teammate Alex Bowman (48) riding alongside.
Today is the 40th anniversary of Hendrick Motor Sport’s – then called All-Star Racing – first race.
After the race Chastain’s (1) car was suddenly spinning along the track. TV missed whatever caused it.
Byron appears to be stuck in the infield grass since he chose to try to do donuts in the grass on the Daytona 500 logo.
That was a very enjoyable race. They field raced for most of the event. The early portion of the race was enjoyable viewing with FOXSports keeping the idiot camera shots to a minimum. Unfortunately they ratcheted up the frequency of those shots during the third stage. The race was full of action that one could only see when they were showing the majority of the field from grandstand level. They spent entirely too much time showing the track surface, the bumpers of cars, the doors of cars, the hoods of cars, and the field from God’s viewpoint (very distant blimp shots). I enjoyed the race very much. It’s been a few years since I could say that. If they camera-work would’ve been consistently good I would be able to say it was the best Daytona 500 in a dozen years. The idiot shots detracted from the end of the race. The tension and excitement that naturally builds at the end of a good race is best viewed with camera shots of the majority of the field. Inexplicably FOXSports d
ecided that was the time to use in-car and bumper-cam shots. Thoroughly inappropriate. Those shots interrupted the mounting excitement, frequently deflating what was becoming a highly entertaining and thrilling race to the finish.