Dillon takes No. 3 back to victory lane
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The No. 3 is No. 1 again at Daytona, on a day, in a race and at a place forever linked with the great Dale Earnhardt.
Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 on Sunday night driving the iconic No. 3 Chevrolet that Earnhardt piloted for most of his career. Earnhardt was behind the wheel of No. 3 when he won his only Daytona 500 in 1998, and when he was killed in an accident on the final lap of the race three years later.
Dillon’s victory, in the 60th running of “The Great American Race,” came 17 years to the day of Earnhardt’s fatal crash.
Dillon wasn’t a factor in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet until the final lap in overtime when he got a push from Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. that helped him get to leader Aric Almirola. Dillon spun Almirola then whizzed on by to give Childress, his grandfather, another iconic victory in the beloved No. 3.
“My grandfather has done everything for me and everybody knows it,” Dillon said. “There’s a lot of pressure on me to perform because I’ve had a little bit of everything. But I like that pressure, the same with the No. 3, there’s a lot of pressure behind it, but I’m willing to take it and go with it.”
As for the aggressive move that wrecked Almirola? Dillon was doing what has to be done to win at Daytona.
“We just had a run and I stayed on the gas. It’s what it is when you’re at Daytona,” he said. “I just had more momentum when he was trying to block me and it turned him. Hate that for him, but it’s the Daytona 500. He should do the same thing to me in that position.”
Almirola, in his debut race for
Stewart-Haas Racing, was devastated.
“My heart is broken. I thought I was going to win the Daytona 500,” Almirola said. Childress was overjoyed. “I just, the emotions just flowing, to be able to win, with the 3 car, having it in the winner’s circle, my grandson, 20 years after Dale won in ’98, so special,” Childress said.
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The final scoring tower showed the No. 3 on top, then the No. 43 — two of the most seminal numbers in NASCAR.
Wallace, the first black driver in the Daytona 500 field since 1969, finished second in a 1-2 finish for Chevrolet and Childress’ engine program. Wallace drives the No. 43 car for Richard Petty and sobbed in his post-race news conference after his mother came to the front of the room to give him a hug. The two had a long embrace in which she told Wallace repeatedly “you finally did it.”
After another moment with his sister, Wallace sat at the dais sobbing into a towel. His finish is the highest for a black driver since
SUNDAY’S NASCAR MONSTER ENERGY CUP-DAYTONA 500 RESULTS
At Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.; Lap length: 2.50 miles
1. (14) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 207
laps, 0 rating, 42 points. 2. (7) Darrell Wallace Jr, Chevrolet,
207, 0, 39. 3. (2) Denny Hamlin,
0, 35. 4. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 207, 0, 41. 5. (21) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet,
207, 0, 32. 6. (16) Paul Menard,
0, 42. 7. (3) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 207, 0, 48. 8. (13) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet,
207, 0, 29. 9. (22) Michael McDowell,
207, 0, 39. 10. (20) AJ Allmendinger,
Chevrolet, 207, 0, 27. 11. (37) Aric Almirola, Ford, 206, 0, 33. Toyota, 207, Ford, 207, Ford,
12. (29) Justin Marks,
206, 0, 0. 13. (18) Trevor Bayne,
0, 28. 14. (39) David Gilliland,
0, 0. 15. (10) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 206, 0, 22. 16. (19) Jamie McMurray,
Chevrolet, 205, 0, 21. 17. (1) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet,
205, 0, 29. 18. (24) Martin Truex Jr,
205, 0, 30. 19. (38) Kyle Larson,
204, 0, 18. 20. (34) Gray Gaulding,
204, 0, 17. 21. (27) Jeffrey Earnhardt,
Chevrolet, 204, 0, 16.
Wendell Scott was 13th in 1966.
“Pull it together, bud, pull it together. You just finished second,” he told himself. Chevrolet, Ford, 206, Ford, 206, Toyota, Chevrolet, Toyota, (Start position in parentheses)
22. (40) Mark Thompson,
203, 0, 15. 23. (33) William Byron,
203, 0, 14. 24. (30) D.J. Kennington,
201, 0, 13. 25. (12) Kyle Busch,
0, 12. 26. (11) Kurt Busch,
198, 0, 21. 27. (36) Matt DiBenedetto,
accident, 198, 0, 10. 28. (25) Brendan Gaughan,
Chevrolet, accident, 198, 0, 9. 29. (9) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford,
accident, 197, 0, 15. 30. (15) David Ragan, Ford,
accident, 107, 0, 7. 31. (6) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, Toyota, 200, Ford, accident, Ford,
Wallace, from Mobile, Alabama, received a telephone call from Hank Aaron before the race and Lewis Hamilton, the Ford, Toyota, Ford,
accident, 105, 0, 10. 32. (31) Brad Keselowski,
accident, 102, 0, 5. 33. (4) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet,
accident, 101, 0, 7. 34. (26) Kasey Kahne,
accident, 101, 0, 3. 35. (28) Danica Patrick,
accident, 101, 0, 2. 36. (8) Erik Jones, Toyota, accident,
59, 0, 1. 37. (17) Daniel Suarez,
accident, 59, 0, 1. 38. (35) Jimmie Johnson,
accident, 59, 0, 1. 39. (23) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet,
accident, 59, 0, 1. 40. (32) Corey Lajoie,
engine, 8, 0, 1. Ford, Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Toyota, Chevrolet, Chevrolet,
four-time Formula One world champion and only black driver in that series, tweeted his support to Wallace.