Kurt Busch notches first Daytona 500 victory on last lap pass
By Ted Fleming
Kyle Busch blasts Goodyear and Jimmie Johnson blames too much aggressiveness for the wild and crazy 59th running of the Daytona 500.
Kurt Busch won one of the wildest, crash-filled Daytona 500 races on record, with blame being thrown in every direction during the event and after it was all over, from tires being no good to drivers simply being out of control. However NASCAR officials look at this weekend, this kind of craziness cannot continue for those behind the wheel to those who own the cars, although fans might have enjoyed all the wreckage.
Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, gave his boss Tony Stewart and Stewart-Haas Racing the win in the team’s first race in a Ford after leaving Chevrolet last year. The door was opened for him when Chase Elliott ran out of gas after it looked like he was going to sweep the weekend after winning the pole and a Duel race.
A Las Vegas native, Busch was listed as a 25-1 shot to win the Great American Race.
“There is nothing predictable about this race anymore, and the more years that have gone by that I didn’t win I kept trying to go back to patterns that I had seen in the past,” Busch said in the winner’s circle. “My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back. And I thought that was an omen. Throw caution to the wind. The more unpredictability that keeps unfolding at the Daytona 500, I predicted it. It just got crazy and wild and I am so proud of all the drivers at the end. We put on a show for a full fuel run and nobody took each other out and it was one of the smartest chess games I have seen out there. All the hard work that Ford and SHR put into this — this Ford Fusion is in Daytona’s victory lane.”
Another blessing for the No. 41 was then-leader Kyle Larson also went empty falling back, leaving Busch as the one to catch. Ryan Blaney in the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing made a late run but could not catch the winner finishing second.
“The look on Gene Haas’ face right now, that smile, make it all worth it,” Tony Stewart said during post-race interviews. “It has been a really long hard winter, and I am so proud of everyone at SHR and Ford Performance. They really worked their tails off to get ready. Doug Yates and everybody at Roush Yates Engines brought unbelievable power all week. It was a crazy race, even crazier to sit and watch it from a pit box finally. If I had known all I had to do was retire, I would have retired 17 years ago if I knew it was what it took to win the race. Kurt did an amazing job. He doesn’t even have a rear view mirror. The mirror folded on him. His spotter, Tony Raines, did an amazing job. That is the most composed I have ever seen Kurt at the end of a race. He deserved this.”
One of the feel-good stories of the day was Michael Waltrip who was racing in his final Daytona 500. The 53-year old two-time 500 winner finished eighth. He was just one of five cars that did not suffer any damage on this crazy day in Florida.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a great memory you know to have a top 10,” Waltrip said. “I had so many times I was in the middle of a crash and just missed it. So, you do a good job and you get lucky both. At the end, I just lost the draft and that is unfortunate because I was able to weave my way past people. I had a really, really good handling car. I’m thankful that I survived and I’m thankful for being able to run upfront and I’m happy about the finish. I’m ready for it to be my last one so it’s going to be a good one to remember it by.”
Unlike the night before when there were two red flags thrown before Lap 30, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers seemed to have a bit more patience, at least early on. Then race fans seemed to say in unison a Yogi Berra line from many years ago, “’It’s deja vu all over again.”
“I don’t know what it is about this year, maybe it’s the segments, I don’t know,” said Ty Dillon, echoing some of the sentiments from Saturday. “It’s got everybody a little more amped up, but there are not a whole lot of cars finishing. I dodged all of them yesterday and ran out of gas in the end and didn’t dodge them all today.”
Both Xfinity and Cup races came off like a 40-car non-points event where it was “checkers or wreckers” as the mantra going in. Most of the first half of the Great American Race gave hope that cooler heads would prevail until the first incident, and then it started to come into focus just how many cars would still be running at Lap 200.
Dissimilar to the Xfinity Series crash-fest Saturday night, the first caution did not come out until the Cup cars were halfway through Stage 1 for a single car incident. Corey Lajoie, in his first Daytona 500, nearly rear-ended the No. 14 of Clint Bowyer on green-flag pit stops, and as he tried to avoid an accident, he made a quick right turn and into the outside wall.
The first “Big One” of 2017 came on lap 45 in Stage 2 started when Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota simply turned by itself and took out Dale Earnhardt Jr., Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Ty Dillon. Sadler and Dillon were the only ones involved that were able to continue. At the time of the wreck, all 40 starters were still out on the track.
“We thought we could get the car fixed, and get back out there and see what we could do with the rest of the day and make up some spots maybe,” Earnhardt said. “But there is just too much damage. The radiator is pushed back. The toe is all messed up. The front suspension is knocked around pretty bad so the upper A-frame is laid over on the motor. We just can’t drive it like that.”
Busch was not very happy after climbing out of his car in the garage, blaming Goodyear for starting the accident that took out four cars, three Toyotas.
“Obviously Goodyear tires just aren’t very good at holding air,” he said to the TV crew. “It’s very frustrating when we have that down here every single year we’ve been here. Last year we had it as well too. It wrecked us in practice and tore up a car – a few cars actually were in that as well. It’s just so disappointing.”
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Trevor Bayne was at the center of the next multi-car wreck when he tapped Jimmie Johnson in Turn 3 that, when everything stopped, as many as 16 cars had suffered damage. Others involved were Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Joey Gase, Matt DiBenedetto, Landon Cassill, Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Brandan Gaughan, Martin Truex and DJ Kennington. Bowyer, Patrick, Johnson, Buescher and Kennington immediately went behind the wall and out of the race.
“They started running into the back of me off of Turn 2 and didn’t stop until I crashed and took out the field,” Johnson said. “I don’t’ know what was going on with the pack behind me, but the whole back straightaway I had, I think the No. 6 (Trevor Bayne) into the back of me. I was just praying that they would let me go and let me get my rear tires back on the ground and it never happened. Just a lot of aggression, way too early in my opinion.”
Just a few laps later, it appeared that Ryan Blaney was heading to the pits for an unscheduled stop, and that started a three-car spin with Jeffrey Earnhardt bumping Elliott Sadler, who then collected Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse. On the restart, there were only 20 of the 40 starters who were still on the lead lap while 15 cars were out of the race.
It was “here we go again” one lap after the next restart with Jamie McMurray getting into the back of Chase Elliott, and the wreck-fest continued. This time Daniel Suarez, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Ty Dillon and Ryan Newman were the latest casualties.
Not to be outdone, Chase Elliott had a big run going and clipped Joey Gase on Lap 151 which also spun out Brendan Gaughan.
STAGE 1 (Lap 60) Top 10 Awarded Points:
Kyle Busch*, Harvick, Blaney, Keselowski, Earnhardt, Larson, McMurray, Hamlin, Johnson, Patrick (*Busch gets playoff point for winning stage)
STAGE 2 (Lap 120) Top 5:
Harvick*, Logano, Kurt Busch, Keselowski, Patrick, Allmendinger, Bowyer, Larson, Newman, Blaney (*Harvick gets playoff point for winning stage)
STAGE 3 (Race Winner – Lap 200):
Kurt Busch (Gets five bonus points for win)
PIT NOTES:
Daniel Suarez, last season’s Xfinity Series champion, became just the second Mexican-born driver to start the Daytona 500. In 1971, Pedro Rodriguez started 36th and finished 13th, one of only six Cup races he started in his career. Rodriguez died in an Interserie sports car race at Norisring, a street circuit, in Nuremberg, West Germany at the age of 31 just six months after that Great American Race appearance.
The first Daytona 500 was run in 1959 (Lee Petty won), although it has only been the season-opening race since 1982 (Bobby Allison).
Corey Lajoie was the first to come under NASCAR’s new crash rule. After hitting the outside wall, he had five minutes to effect repairs on his No. 83 Toyota and made it out before the clock expired. However, he still needed to get up to the minimum speed of 160 mph under green, which he did.
DAYTONA 500 FINAL RESULTS:
1 – Kurt Busch
2 – Ryan Blaney
3 – AJ Allmendinger
4 – Aric Almirola
5 – Paul Menard
6 – Joey Logano
7 – Kasey Kahne
8 – Michael Waltrip
9 – Matt DiBenedetto
10 – Trevor Bayne
11 – Brendan Gaughan
12 – Kyle Larson
13 – Martin Truex Jr.
14 – Chase Elliott
15 – Michael McDowell
16 – Landon Cassill
17 – Denny Hamlin
18 – Cole Whitt
19 – Austin Dillon
20 – Elliott Sadler
21 – Ryan Newman
22 – Kevin Harvick
23 – Joey Gase
24 – Corey Lajoie
25 – David Ragan
26 – Jeffrey Earnhardt
27 – Brad Keselowski
28 – Jamie McMurray
29 – Daniel Suarez
30 – Ty Dillon
31 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
32 – Clint Bowyer
33 – Danica Patrick
34 – Jimmie Johnson
35 – Chris Buescher
36 – DJ Kennington
37 – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
38 – Kyle Busch
39 – Erik Jones
40 – Matt Kenseth