Chaos decides the Daytona 500
A last-lap ‘big one’ led to an emotional win for the little guys, and led to wild celebrations for the Front Row Motorsports Ford team
Michael Mcdowell was the unlikely winner of the 63rd Daytona 500 – his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in 358 attempts – as The Great American Race culminated once again in a scary last-lap crash.
Mcdowell has long been renowned as an excellent superspeedway racer, often hauling his Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang to finishes seemingly well beyond the team’s means. This time he needed all his fine decision-making skills and a fair slice of fortune – Mcdowell was in the right place at the right time to escape an insanely violent crash at Turn 3 on the final lap that sealed his victory. “I just can’t believe it,” Mcdowell exclaimed as fireworks exploded overhead. “So many years, grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. Getting my first win here at Daytona…
Are you kidding me? We’re the Daytona 500 champions!”
NASCAR threw the yellow flag almost immediately for the huge last-lap crash, and that froze the field with Mcdowell clearly ahead of Chevrolet duo Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon. Kevin Harvick finished fourth for Ford, ahead of Toyota’s Denny Hamlin.
The race was led initially by poleman Alex Bowman as fellow front-row qualifier William Byron was forced to start at the rear of the field after going to his back-up car following a crash in Thursday’s Duel race (see page 49). The first caution didn’t take long to happen, as 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope, still racing at the age of 62, pounded the Turn 3 wall on lap three. Cope had suffered a puncture after making contact with the recovering Byron, and also suffering damage was Bubba Wallace, whose Toyota had twice failed pre-race technical inspection and was also sent to the back of the grid.
The second caution was for a genuine ‘Big One’ as a plethora of serious contenders for victory were eliminated. Kyle Busch bump-drafted his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team-mate Christopher Bell into Aric Almirola on the backstretch. Almirola couldn’t accept the multiple pushes he received to his rear bumper and veered right into Bowman approaching Turn 3 on lap 14. This created 190mph havoc behind them, as cars pinballed around on the high line and then Daniel Suarez and Kurt Busch, trying to avoid that crash, clipped Ryan Newman into a spin on the inside, now effectively forming a wall of cars across the track that those following couldn’t avoid piling into. Byron’s Chevy went up on its side as it clipped the rotating Newman.
“I had the wreck missed but got hit from some place behind and that was the end of our day,” said Newman. “Unbelievable,” sighed Almirola from the cockpit of his steaming wreck, summing up the feelings of another 15 drivers in a crash that took over 16 seconds from start to finish. “We were in a fine position, just sitting there riding around in the top two, three,” added Almirola. “[Bell] just
came with a big run and hit me really hard in a bad spot.”
Soon after that, lightning strikes from a nearby thunderstorm put the race under a red flag. The heavens then truly opened, causing a lengthy delay as a series of storm cells repeatedly soaked the venue. The 16 cars that sustained damage were those of Almirola, Kurt Busch, Newman, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex, Bell, Matt Dibenedetto, Byron, David Ragan, Anthony Alfredo, Erik Jones, Bowman, Jamie Mcmurray and Suarez. Ten were wrecked beyond immediate repair, while others would rejoin as rolling wrecks after some serious attention from angle grinders and sledgehammers.
While it hadn’t worked out for them, Hamlin, going for his fourth 500 win – and third on the trot – had opted for a safetyfirst approach and wisely dropped to the rear of the field early on. “Predictable, I guess,” said Hamlin of the huge wreck. “Essentially you’re asking for trouble at that point.”
After a delay of almost six hours, the race restarted with reigning champion Elliott leading. Hamlin reversed his cautious strategy, hitting the front just as the race settled into some placid single-file running. Chase Briscoe – who’d used the rain delay to pop out for a Chinese takeaway – and Quin Houff caused the race’s next yellow. Debris from Byron’s disintegrating car caused both to suffer blowouts and spin.
Hamlin held on for the stage one victory ahead of an impressive Ryan Preece (who isn’t even sure to run a full season with JTG Daugherty Racing), Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Xfinity champion Austin Cindric, who was running a one-off with Penske Racing.
Toyota held sway in the early stages of the second stage too, with Bell leading Kyle Busch and Hamlin as the race quickly settled down into a pattern. Dillon led Chevrolet’s challenge, ahead of top Ford contender Cindric. The first green-flag pitstops of the evening were kicked off by the Fords, which pitted just after half-distance to take fuel only. Toyota’s lack of numbers compared to its manufacturer opposition should have been a handicap at this point, and its small fleet pitted second (all four cars taking right-side tyres), with Chevrolet running the longest and taking fuel only.
As the sequence shook out, two Chevys – Larson and Elliott – briefly escaped up front, and for a few moments it got quite messy as the Toyotas converged with the Fords and Chevys. The two fresh tyres helped boost Hamlin to the lead once more, aided by a big push from Wallace to surge ahead of Harvick, Logano and Cindric, while the Chevys fell backwards having failed to get themselves organised efficiently.
Bell, who had earlier led 32 laps, had a left-rear tyre go flat as he ran through Turn 1, collecting Ricky Stenhouse and Larson before he spun exiting Turn 2. Jamie Mcmurray, the 2010 Daytona 500 winner running a one-off for Spire Motorsports, spun in sympathy behind them. That caused the race’s fifth caution. Further drama transpired when Kaz Grala’s right-rear corner caught fire and, despite it repeatedly catching fire, the team sent him out of the pits… only to catch fire again – and this time he also lost his brakes completely. While Grala (who had lucked into leading for 10 laps under caution after the red flag) literally blazed his way around the track, the race restarted with Hamlin, Harvick and Logano duking it out up front.
Crucially, Hamlin was able to hook up with Wallace, driving for the new 23XI team that’s co-owned by Hamlin and basketball great Michael Jordan. Wallace dived to the inside on the final lap of stage two, not to attack his team boss but to foil a big run that had formed behind them. Hamlin held his nerve and his lead until the end of the stage, finishing ahead of Harvick, Wallace, Elliott and Dillon.
With the preamble over, the serious stuff began as the green flag flew on the final stage. Hamlin started that as he meant to go on,
“Despite it repeatedly catching fire, the car wassent out of the pits… only tocatch fire again”
blowing past Dillon (who only took two tyres in the stage break) at the restart. Hamlin then had a scare when Harvick gave him some super-aggressive pushes on the backstretch that twice got him loose.
True to form, the Fords pitted first for the final planned fuel stops under green with 30 laps remaining. The Chevys came one lap later, with the Toyotas going one further. The Ford strategy worked out perfectly, its strong pack surging ahead of the armada of Chevys, while the thin Toyota entry rejoined with too much separation between them to draft effectively, allowing the hooked-up Fords to chase them down and blast past with a huge speed advantage.
This disastrous turn of events dropped Hamlin from first to 13th – “I got off pitroad too good and I was too far ahead of the pack,” he admitted – with Logano now leading from Harvick, Cole Custer, Keselowski and Mcdowell in an all-ford top-five. Ross Chastain led the Chevys, ahead of Dillon and Elliott, with Busch now the top Toyota in ninth. Wallace dropped out of contention at this point with a loose wheel necessitating an extra pitstop.
The intensity level ramped up with 11 laps to go, as a failed
Chevy effort to pass the Fords allowed Hamlin to sneak some spots back. Custer had to sacrifice his track position to fend off the threat, Dillon taking advantage to grab fifth.
Logano clung on to his lead of the single-file pack as the final laps ticked down, ahead of Harvick, Keselowski and Mcdowell. Keselowski made the first truly significant move when he took second off Harvick, who dropped down the order as he lost the draft. “Kind of a weird race – how it was all single-file and then just all scattered there,” rued Harvick later.
Dillon then tried a move off Turn 2 but, even with Elliott’s help from behind, it didn’t work out. “The top [lane] was just so fast, it didn’t seem to matter how many would go low, you just couldn’t get past them,” said Elliott. Dillon added: “I pulled out to see if the bottom would work, it was close but I just didn’t get enough of a run. I had a rocketship of a car.”
Instead, the outside lane got huge energy on the backstretch on the final lap, which culminated in Mcdowell shoving Keselowski forwards into Logano, who moved down the track to try to block his Penske team-mate’s run… but it was way too late to avoid contact.
Logano spun to the inside, as Keselowski speared to the outside. Keselowski was T-boned at full speed by Busch, before Cindric and then Wallace piled into a crazy fireball of a wreck. Keselowski’s car briefly got up into the debris fencing, chewing off its rear section, but mercifully it came back to earth and he climbed out unhurt.
“I had a big run down the backstretch and it ended up real bad,” said Keselowski. “I don’t feel like I made a mistake, but I can’t drive everybody else’s car. So frustrating. I had a run, I made a move, it just didn’t work out.” Logano’s view was: “Pandemonium, chaos struck. It was a really big run coming at me and we all just collided in one spot. I hate that we didn’t win, we had a great shot where we were, leading on the last lap.”
Busch was slow to climb from his car. He’d been winded as he piled into Keselowski’s prone car. “It’s to be expected, just a matter of time before it all breaks loose,” he said. “All of a sudden I had the #2 car [Keselowski] on my hood. I was just trying to get around the outside of them. I took a few clobbers there, just fortunate that I’m all good.”
As unlikely hero Mcdowell celebrated his great success with burnouts, pre-race favourite Hamlin, who had led a race-high
98 laps and won both stages, was left to look on and admit:
“All I could get was a top-five finish with a dominant car.”
“I don’t feel I made a mistake, but Ican’t drive everybody else’s car. So frustrating”