USA TODAY International Edition
Busch on top, packs back at Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The packs returned to Daytona International Speedway in a steady shower of flying sparks, shooting flames and sliced sheet metal.
Fittingly, the driver who put on the most spectacular show also won the race.
“I don’t know how many times I spun out and didn’t spin out,” Kyle Busch said. “Amazing race. It was fun to drive when I wasn’t getting turned around.”
Busch passed Tony Stewart off the final corner to win Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout by 0.013 seconds, the closest finish in the history of the exhibition event that effectively starts the Sprint Cup season as a warm- up to the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
The debut of NASCAR’S new rules had smashing results, eliminating the two- car tandems ( which were reviled by many fans and some drivers) but also taking out virtually half of the field in three multicar wrecks. Ten of the 25 cars finished on the lead lap.
Busch had to overcome plenty of adversity, getting spun by Jeff Gordon on lap 74 ( Gordon walked away unscathed after his No. 24 Chevrolet barrel- rolled and landed on its roof). After repairing his No. 18 Toyota, Busch charged from eighth to first in an overtime green- white- checkered finish.
But Busch’s most impressive move came midway through the race, extended seven laps beyond the scheduled 75- lap distance. Contact with Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet sent Busch’s Camry onto the apron twice, and Busch worked furiously to regain control. “The first time might have been luck,” Busch said. “I’m going to say the second time was all skill.”
Until three years ago at restrictor- plate tracks Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, cars were kept bunched together in large packs inches apart at nearly 200 mph. But the repaving of both tracks and the improvement of cooling systems led to the prevalence of two- car trains last season, making drivers dependent on partners.
That bothered many, including threetime champion Stewart, who said he grew bored with “staring at a back spoiler for 500 miles” as the pushing car in a two- car train.
NASCAR modified cooling systems so drivers would risk overheating their engines by hooking up and banned in- race communication between teams. The changes seemed to work, as the tandems that had been prevalent last season disappeared.
“I actually had fun racing at Daytona again, which I haven’t had for a while,” Stewart said. “We had control of what lane we got to run in. We got to move whenever we wanted. You didn’t have to not move because you had a guy behind you that you had to rely on.”
The increased number of crashes was a worthy trade- off, said Marcos Ambrose, who finished third ahead of Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin. “Even though we crashed more, you just feel like you were in control of your own destiny,” Ambrose said.
Kevin Harvick, whowas 22nd, blamed the crashes on inexperienced drivers who seemed unaccustomed to pack racing after it virtually disappeared for a full season.
“All the wrecks have been caused by people hitting ( others) in the left rear,” Harvick said. “The biggest problem is the tandem racing has been so easy for these guys to stay attached that some of them haven’t raced in pack racing.”