McDowell isn’t the 1st underdog to win a 500
Michael McDowell became the Daytona 500’s latest underdog story early Monday morning, winning The Great American Race as a fireball erupted behind him.
Teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, the leader at the time, got tangled going into Turn 3 on the final lap. Keselowski slammed into the wall and was hit hard by an oncoming Kyle Busch. The collision caused a quick but fierce fireball as McDowell took the lead.
Everyone emerged from their cars OK. McDowell, meanwhile, was deemed the leader when the caution was displayed, clinching his first win in his 358th Cup start.
While it doesn’t happen all that often, McDowell isn’t the first underdog to win NASCAR’s Super Bowl.
Time to hop in the DeLorean!
First gear
When you think of great Daytona 500 underdog stories, Trevor Bayne is on every list.
The 20-year-old stunned the NASCAR world when he won in 2011, becoming the youngest driver to win a 500.
Bayne held off a late charge by Carl Edwards to secure the win. Bayne, a parttime driver at the time, would race seven more seasons — three of them full-time — but never win again.
McDowell, who is good friends with the former 500 champion, said Bayne called him around 5 a.m. Monday morning to congratulate him on the win.
Second gear
Let’s fire up the Tiny Lund talk! Going all the way back to the 1963 Daytona 500, everything came together for Lund — the 33-year-old from Harlan, Iowa — to make the Great American Race his first Cup victory.
First off, Lund was in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford only because he was filling in for Marvin Panch, a Daytona Beach resident who had recently suffered injuries in a sports-car wreck at Daytona.
Panch’s car flipped and caught fire, only to have Lund, who was at the track, rush to his side with others and pull him out of the car.
Lund was named Panch’s fill-in at the 500, and won the race thanks in large part to a great fuel strategy. The team made only four pit stops, mainly because the race started under caution thanks to a wet track.
Because of that, Lund was able to run the entire race in fuel-saving mode, eventually out-lasting the field and winning the race.
Third gear
This unlikely winner was in the race this past weekend ... albeit for a very short amount of time.
Derrike Cope won the 1990 Daytona 500 in one of the biggest upsets in NASCAR history. The late Dale Earnhardt was leading on the final lap when he ran over debris, cutting a tire.
Cope was in the right place at the right time, driving by the eventual seven-time champion and winning the Daytona 500 for his first career win. Cope won one more time in 1990, and then never won again.
Now 62, Cope ran his final Daytona 500 on Sunday, but made contact with Bubba Wallace on Lap 3, cut a tire, hit the wall, and then called it a day. He finished 40th.
Fourth gear
How’s 0-for-462 sound for an underdog?
Michael Waltrip won the 2001 Daytona 500 in dramatic fashion, leading his DEI (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated) teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to the finish line to win his first Cup race in 462 starts.
Of course, behind them a tragedy was unfolding as Earnhardt, who hired Waltrip to drive the No. 15 car, had just died in a Turn 4 wreck.
Waltrip would go on to win twice more at Daytona and again at Talladega to tally four wins in a 33-year Cup career.