Austin Dillon survives, wins the 60th Daytona 500 in overtime
By Nick Tylwalk
The 60th Daytona 500 was a tale of two races, with an eventful start and finish sandwiching a long middle stretch before a winner was crowned.
Restrictor plate racing always carries with it the possibility that a lot of cars are going to get torn up. The 2018 Daytona 500 sent more wrecked cars to the garage than most. Still, a winner at Daytona is a champion no matter how many cars are running at the finish, and Austin Dillon returning the No. 3 to Victory Lane will be a very popular win that needs no asterisk.
The one driver who might not be so happy about it is Aric Almirola. After a multi-car accident with less than two laps to go necessitated overtime, Almirola got the jump on Denny Hamlin and others and led the field to the white flag. But Almirola was unable to block a hard-charging Dillon, who got a push from fellow Chevrolet driver Bubba Wallace, and their contact sent Almirola’s No. 10 Ford into the wall.
Dillon held on to finish off his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, sending his car on a celebratory spin through the grass that replicated what Dale Earnhardt Sr. did 20 years ago when he finally won the Great American Race. It was the second consecutive year that saw the Daytona 500 winner lead only the final lap.
“I did what I had to do at the end,” Dillon said in his Victory Lane TV interview. “I hate it for the 10 guys, but I had a run and just stayed in the gas.”
Several of the sport’s powerhouse teams suffered through some serious misfortune well before the nail-biting finish. Every single one of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyotas faced adversity, with Denny Hamlin sliding through his pit box and Kyle Busch blowing two tires all before Stage 1 even ended. Their young teammates, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez, both exited the race in the same wreck on lap 60.
That incident also caused trouble for Hendrick Motorsports. Seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson wrecked his third car of Speedweeks, and rookie William Byron received just enough damage that it ended up causing a later caution.
Another Hendrick car was in the middle of a big wreck in Stage 2. Chase Elliott got caught between the cars of leader Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski, a situation that was never going to work out for the best. That same incident also ended the NASCAR career of Danica Patrick, undoubtedly not the way she wanted to see her final chapter finish. Pole-sitter Alex Bowman followed his teammates to the garage in the multi-car collision that forced overtime.
The middle portion of the race saw a green flag run to end Stage 2 followed by a lengthy period in the final stage where the lead pack ended up single file with very little shuffling of positions and Blaney leading many of the laps. That might have been a bigger talking point if it wasn’t for the way the race ended.
Instead, all NASCAR fans are likely to be discussing for the next week, and perhaps long after that, is the No. 3 winning in dramatic fashion.
Next: See all the highlights from the 60th Daytona 500
2018 Daytona 500 results
- Austin Dillon
- Bubba Wallace
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Chris Buescher
- Paul Menard
- Ryan Blaney (Stage 2 winner)
- Ryan Newman
- Michael McDowell
- AJ Allmendinger
- Aric Almirola
- Justin Marks
- Trevor Bayne
- David Gilliland
- Clint Bowyer
- Jamie McMurray
- Alex Bowman
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Larson
- Gray Gaulding
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Mark Thompson
- William Byron
- D.J. Kennington
- Kyle Busch
- Kurt Busch (Stage 1 winner)
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Brendan Gaughan
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- David Ragan
- Kevin Harvick
- Brad Keselowski
- Chase Elliott
- Kasey Kahne
- Danica Patrick
- Erik Jones
- Daniel Suarez
- Jimmie Johnson
- Ty Dillon
- Corey LaJoie