Dillon drives iconic No. 3 to Daytona win
Victory come 20 years after Dale Earnhardt’s only Daytona 500 title
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In recent years, the main complaint about NASCAR racing is that there has not been enough true, vivid competition — bumpers banging, doors clanging, nerves jangling — at the front.
Those who might want to launch such commentary after Sunday’s Daytona 500 simply weren’t paying attention.
Drivers at or searching for the front in NASCAR’s classic race showed the patience of a hungry dog tempted by a filet. Among the results — some great edge-of-the-seat, white-knuckle racing, coupled with audacious blocking by those unwilling to give up a position.
The downside of that circumstance, unfortunately, was calamity. Spectacular multiple-car wrecks depleted the field and brought into question the frequent promotional claim that these 40 drivers are the very best on the planet.
Key among the departures on a beautiful Sunday afternoon along the Atlantic shore were Brad Keselowski, the Las Vegas betting favorite, and Chase Elliott, the favorite of north Georgia and all other precincts that once made his father, Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, so beloved.
Chase summed up the delight and dilemma of the day with one comment. “The safest place to be is out front,” he said after crashing, “and everybody
wants to be there. That is the problem.”
First at the finish was young Austin Dillon, he of a strong racing family and tradition, a survivor of sorts on a rough and tough day.
Keselowski and Elliott went out together, both in pursuit of race leader Ryan Blaney, just past the halfway point.
Tossed to the wind in that crash was Danica Patrick, whose NASCAR career, one that succeeded in its churn of publicity but fell short in measures of performance, came to a sudden, smashing halt. Patrick’s bright green Chevrolet was turned into a pretzel, and she and a Green Bay Packers quarterback wandered off into the Daytona sunset, Indianapolis on her mind.
Blaney, trail boss for the young guns some think are ready to take over the sport, was among those who figured out that the best defense was a big offense. He stayed in first place for lap after lap after lap, his bright yellow Ford looking like a rocket few could challenge.
Blaney cruised into the final 20 laps in front of quite a collection of challengers: Martin Truex Jr., last year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and dominant driver; former 500 winner Kurt Busch; and upstart Alex Bowman, knighted as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s replacement but mostly silent since winning the 500 pole a week ago.
In the last 10 laps, there was chaos aplenty, more than enough for even the fan hungriest for mayhem. Blocking be- came an art, passing a science that required daring, quick thinking and the ability to forget about what sort of damage might ensue.
The finish, of course, came down to overtime, and the crazy driving brought up a reasonable question: Will any restrictor-plate race end without crashing and bashing?
The answer to that didn’t matter to Austin Dillon in the Daytona twilight Sunday.
He drove his heart out over the final two laps and did what he had to do to return the No. 3, forever associated with the late Dale Earnhardt Sr., to Daytona’s victory lane. Twenty years earlier, Earnhardt finally won the race that had eluded him for so long.
It was sweet closure.