Truck Series regular Justin Haley made an amazing move to cross the start-finish line first Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, but he was heartbroken to discover he wasn’t the race winner.
It’s not often that the driver who takes the checkered flag isn’t ruled the winner of a NASCAR race. Even when a car flunks post-race inspection, penalties are handed out but the winner is the winner. Justin Haley thought he was a winner on Friday night at Daytona International Speedway, even doing a burnout at the conclusion of the Coca-Cola Firecracker 250.
He earned that right after making an amazing top to bottom move to bypass both Cup Series star Kyle Larson and XFINITY Series veteran Elliott Sadler, who were bumping each other while racing for the victory. Haley beat them both, and it looked like he pulled off an amazing triumph.
The problem was that NASCAR said he hadn’t, and it was Larson who got to go to Victory lane after doing a brief burnout of his own.
So what gives? At Daytona, the double yellow line at the bottom of the track is considered to be out of bounds. You can drive down onto the apron, but you can’t go below the double yellow to advance your position. Haley clearly did that, with both of his left-side tires below the line.
His only real hope was for NASCAR to rule that he was forced down there, and while Larson and Sadler battled, they did move ever so slightly down the track. However, NASCAR ruled that Haley had violated the rule, and that was that.
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The disappointment was evident in Haley’s voice as he talked to the NBC Sports crew after the race, and he even mentioned wondering why NASCAR doesn’t clarify how much of your car needs to be below the line before you are breaking the rule — though the announcers in the booth felt it was a pretty cut and dry call. It’s definitely a bummer for Haley, but considering he’s already all but locked into the Truck Series playoffs with a win there and he’s got the skill to pull off what he did on Friday, he’ll get another shot at an XFINITY Series victory sooner rather than later.