Johnson causes crash and enrages Busch

Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson accepted blame for causing a second crash in five days at Daytona International Speedway, saying “everyone makes mistakes.”

Johnson turned Kyle Busch in the first of two qualifying races at Daytona on Thursday night, causing Busch to spin across the backstretch with 35 laps remaining.

Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet sustained little, if any, damage and finished eighth. Busch had to pit and ended up 18th in the 21-car field.

“Of course, I feel terrible,” Johnson said. “I hate when that stuff happens. There’s not much else I can do, unfortunately.

“I’m just really happy they didn’t get in the fence; it doesn’t appear they have to go to a backup car.”

Johnson planned to find Busch in the motorhome lot or call him to apologize.

“Whatever I can do there,” said Johnson, who radioed his crew members after Busch’s spin and asked them to apologize to the No. 18 Toyota team.

Busch refused to accept Johnson’s mea culpa over his in-car radio.

“I don’t want to (expletive) hear it,” Busch told his team. “Use his damn eyeballs. It’s twice he’s done the same thing in two (expletive) races.”

Patriot to wave green flag

New England Patriots receiver and Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman has been named the honorary starter for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The honor caps a whirlwind two weeks for Edelman, who since winning his third Super Bowl on Feb. 3 has visited Disney World with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and served as a presenter at the Grammy Awards.

A half-dozen NFL quarterbacks have served as honorary starters at Daytona, including Steeler great Terry Bradshaw and Ken Stabler and Troy Aikman.