The NFL’s Super Bowl was played on Sunday, February 4th. Early this morning, NASCAR completed what many drivers, fans, and reporters call its Super Bowl, the Daytona 500. It was run for the fifty-fourth time in history and Matt Kenseth won it for the second time in third years. The fact it took three days and was delayed separately by rain and fire shows the great but dangerous unpredictability of auto racing. It’s incredible that these drivers steer their car in between each other at speeds close to 200 miles per hour. That’s three times more than the legal speed on most roads.
Unfortunately, one little bump from one car to another can cause dozens to crash due to a chain reaction. On the second lap of the race, five-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was hit from the back by David Ragan and spun out of control hitting the outside wall. Uncontrollably, the car caromed back toward the middle of the track where David Ragan’s vehicle drilled Johnson. Ragan’s front bumper struck Johnson’s driver side door as Ragan was driving straight ahead while Johnson was coming back down the hill. Ragan started to twist around when rookie Cup driver Danica Patrick tapped Ragan’s back bumper in an attempt to slow down to avoid Johnson. There were several of these bumper car type incidents during the race but one really stood out.
With 40 laps to go, there was a yellow flag for debris on the race track. The yellow flag means drivers drive slower than normal race speed. Juan Pablo Montoya was driving along the bottom of the race track toward turn 3 trying to rejoin the rest of the racers. Montoya ‘s car somehow made a shaking motion and then jerked straight into a jet dryer truck. There was a huge explosion from the impact with flames torching up a portion of the third turn. The fuel from the truck leaked out of the gas tank and onto the race track.
Why was he driving so fast? Montoya did not want the leaders or the NASCAR pace control car to get in front of him or he would fall behind a lap. He just finished a pit stop before he went back on the course. According to radio communication replayed by Fox Sports, he had an electronic problem. The glitch created a bigger problem for the scope of the race. Was anybody injured? Could workers clean up the race track sufficiently? Would the other drivers drive okay through that for the final 40 laps? In addition, the weather radar showed green patches of rain heading toward Daytona Beach. The race was postponed on Sunday and pushed back from noon to 7:00 PM on Monday because of rain.
On Monday, the Daytona 500 was stopped at lap 160. The red flag flew due to the fire in turn 3 making it dangerous to drive. After two hours of cleanup, the green flag flew again around midnight. It was Tuesday, the third day for the race. Fortunately, the predicted rain seemingly missed Daytona International Speedway except for a few minuscule drops. Unfortunately, racing was yellow-flagged twice in the final laps. First, Jamie McMurray’s vehicle unexpectedly spun around without being hit by someone. According to Fox analyst Michael Waltrip, the back left tire punctured forcing McMurray to lose control. There was no driver fault. Several racers wrecked their cars as the action happened in the middle of the track.
With four laps to go, the racing became more intense but too reckless. Ricky Stenhouse was at the bottom of a three-pack with Joey Logano right above. According to replays, Stenhouse tried to cut in front of Logano when their bumpers met sending Stenhouse's car into the back of Tony Stewart's vehicle. The domino effect continued when Stewart's momentum took him into Kyle Busch who was in front of Stewart but behind Ryan Newman. All of this chaos happened around 10th place, drivers trailing were quickly trying to get to the front of the race.
At the front, Roush Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle ran first and second, respectively. 2004 race winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was in third place. In a final roadblock to the finish, the Daytona 500 would last more than 500 miles. Years ago, NASCAR smartly created a "Green-White-Checkered" finish to avoid races finishing under caution. Basically, it is a two-lap sprint at two hundred miles an hour. When the green flag waves, that means two more laps. After that lap, the white flag signaling the final lap is shown. Following the white flag, if there is a yellow flag for an accident, the race is over. If this sounds confusing, it is, it's better though than the NHL's regular season overtime format.
When the green flag flew to start NASCAR's version of OT, Kenseth, Biffle, and Earnhardt, Jr. were still the top three. Nobody made a big move on the first lap. On the final lap, it appeared Biffle moved to the outside a little while on the backstretch but then backed off. It was strange that he would not try to race his teammate side-by-side. Finally on turn 4, Earnhardt, Jr. whipped by Biffle to the outside of the track looking for a running lane. However, he did not have enough steam to pass Kenseth who won the race to the finish line. Kenseth was first, Earnhardt Jr., was second, and Biffle was third.
While there were plenty of negatives with the delays from rain and fire plus some poor driving, a number of positives came from the three-day event. The national network broadcast on Fox helped them win the ratings battle on Monday night. AcccordingDaytona 500, first time raced in weeknight primetime, bumped NBC's 4.4 mark out of the way at the finish line.
Also, Brad Keselowski turned into a social media star during the red flag delay. He texted comments and posted pictures from the race track through his phone. Apparently, he gained over 100,000 followers on Twitter in the two-hour period. Keselowski or @Keselowski now has nearly 212,000 followers. It was that sort of weekend, fans followed Keselowski to the Twitter finish line while Brad and his racing buddies followed Matt Kenseth to the Daytona 500 finish line.
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