USA TODAY International Edition
Clash ushers in new Cup year
There were no points, barely any fans in the stands and just less than half the field of a typical Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
But it was business as usual and midseason form Sunday in the annual season- opening Clash exhibition at Daytona International Speedway.
Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, made a pass around a crash on the final lap to win.
One of the principals ended up analyzing things at the infield care center and the other next to a damaged car on pit road. Team Penske won its fourth consecutive Cup plate race. Oh, and don’t try to block Brad Keselowski.
“It is the Clash; it’s not the 500,” said Keselowksi, who wrecked into a sixth- place finish after then- leader Denny Hamlin tried to block him on the last lap. “I guarantee he knows — and everyone else who’s watching today — that I’m going to make that move again, and you better move out or you’re going to end up wrecked.”
Keselowski wasn’t fuming, and neither was Hamlin. Plate racing seemingly is engineered to create mayhem, and this was a benign example, considering recent history at the track. It’s just business at restrictor- plate tracks.
“There was obviously nothing intentional from anyone, especially from my end,” said Hamlin, the defending winner of the Daytona 500 and the Clash. He led 48 of 75 laps but finished 13th. “So last lap of an all- out race, this is usually what you’re going to get.”
Logano was in a perfect spot to exploit it.
“Denny had to make the block, but I saw it was coming way too late and wasn’t going to work,” Logano said. “So I immediately went to the top, because I saw that they were going to crash, and we were basically in the right place at the right time.”
Hamlin capitalized on the lastlap moment in the 2016 Daytona 500, when he swooped under an unsuccessful block attempt by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth.
Sunday, Logano and Keselow- ski chased down JGR’s four- car train at the front by finally drafting with each other in the latter stages and preparing for the frantic final sequence.
“Once we got in line, we were able to what I call leap- frogging; you’re able to kind of grab one at a time,” Logano said. “Brad was doing a good job of getting a run, getting outside of them, pull them back, and I was able to follow Brad through.”