A MANGLED METAL MESS
Pileup ends D.J.’s Daytona 500
Nineteen years after his first professional race — a 150-mile loop on a May Sunday in Delaware, Ont. — D.J. Kennington reached the pinnacle of his sport at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
In between, he entered 204 straight races in NASCAR’s Canadian series. He won 26 of them en route to two season championships. But whenever he retires as one of the greatest drivers this country has produced, the highlight of his years in stock cars will be the 16-car wreck that ended Kennington’s debut at the Daytona 500.
Kennington ran a clean race until the 127th of 200 laps, when he was caught in the tail end of the pileup and knocked out of contention. He nearly slipped to safety along the inside of the track, but the front right wheel of his Toyota Camry rammed into the skidding Jimmie Johnson, who had spun out in the middle of the speedway seconds before.
He wound up 36th of 40 drivers after the damage was accounted for, two spots behind Johnson.
Premature exit aside, Sunday’s action capped a breakthrough week for the driver from St. Thomas, Ont.
Kennington, 39, arrived at Daytona several days ago without a guaranteed spot in the main field. He qualified for his first 500 on Thursday by the slimmest of margins, winning himself the last of 40 starting positions by four-100ths of a second.
He became Canada’s first driver at the 500 in 29 years, and achieved something no Canadian had done before by qualifying for Daytona with only one prior start in NASCAR’s top-tier Cup Series.
Three-time runner-up Kurt Busch moved from second place into first on the final lap to win his first Daytona 500. Ryan Blaney was second and A.J. Allmendinger third.
Earlier, Dale Earnhardt Jr., the favourite to win, was knocked out of the race with 92 laps left because of damage to his car. It’s been 15 years since his father was killed at the Daytona 500.