Daytona Rewind

  Speedweeks is what all us NASCAR fans look forward to from Thanksgiving to February. A week after the Super Bowl every year is pole qualifying and the Busch Clash (formerly the Bud Shootout), it's a non points race and really just a marketing thing to get people excited for the Daytona 500. Thursday brings the qualifying duels, two races that set the starting grid for the 500. And finally on Sunday the big race, the Daytona 500, the biggest race of the year, the top of the top in stock car racing, debatably the most prestigious race in America. (I know the Indy 500, but it doesn't have that affect on me) This years races were something to watch.

The Busch Clash was a slimmed down 18 car field, made up of the elite drivers. It was a crash filled race with plenty of crazy moments, including a car a lap down pushing his teammate to victory. Denny Hamlin (who will be very prominent in this post) in a car held together with tape pushed his damaged teammate Erik Jones to a win, a move he would use again a little over a week later. The Clash was ridiculous with plenty of drama sprinkled in, including a riff perhaps at Penske racing. But it was still 7 days before the 500 so guys had plenty of time to settle down.

The Duels were very tame, since drivers had to use those cars in the 500 they wanted them as perfect as possible.The drivers didn't show any of their cards in those races. There was ominous sign in the duels, right as the cars in the first race were coming to take the green flag a rain storm hit the track and delayed the start, a little foreshadowing of Sunday. Joey Logano brought home the victory in duel 1 and William Byron took the 2nd duel, Byron wouldn't be so lucky on Sunday/Monday.

Sunday hits and we're all excited. It's Daytona Day and everyone is amped to watch. President Trump is the Grand Marshall for the race, a very big deal. He gives the command and drives the Presidential Limo on the track. After all the pomp and circumstance of that is done, the cars get lined up to come to the green and as they come out of turn 4, rain starts. The race is delayed. Just like the duels we get all excited and we get nothing. Well that shower goes through and they dry the track, finally the race gets started and the cars get racing, they line up and race single file for 20 laps before another storm comes in, then another storm and another storm, and finally they say enough and delay the race till Monday. The choice of waiting till 4:00 to restart the race was a bit peculiar to me, but I'm pretty sure Fox wanted the viewers and the race to end under the lights, which it did. So that's it for Sunday, 20 laps and just a tease.

Monday afternoon they get fired back up and get back to racing, I missed the first hour or so of the restarted race getting home from work. I didn't miss much after that. While I wasn't watching though Ricky Stenhouse did turn William Byron causing a 1 car accident. I didn't see it but saw the replay when I got home, it was a dumb accident. After the 1st stage the Toyota brigade came to the front and dominated the 2nd stage. There were a few hickups along the way including Martin Truex Jr, hitting a gas can from Chase Elliot on pit road between stages. The final stage was what it always is in the 500, chaos. The closer you get to the end the more aggressive everyone gets and the more incidents there are on track. There were a couple large accidents, including the "Big One" with around 19 to go. Then with 7 to go there was another wreck, on the following restart Denny Hamlin made his move. Coming to the flag Denny got behind the 6 car of Ryan Newman and pushed him so far in front of the field for 3 laps, nobody could catch them. It was incredible to watch and if the race didn't end the way it did, more people would be talking about that push. Then Denny bailed on Newman and took the lead. In doing so the field caught up to them and another accident happened. They stopped the race to clean up and we had NASCAR overtime, which is a green-white-checkered, a 2 lap sprint to the finish, but we weren't done wrecking yet. With the field getting the green Michael McDowell got into the back of Clint Bowyer and wrecked a few cars with barely getting past the Start/Finish line. So we have to do it again. This time they restart clean and for 1 lap things are fine. The field gets in position to make their moves on the final lap and the entire race changes. First domino to fall is Chase Elliot spins coming out of turn 2, it's a single car incident and I think he kept it going. NASCAR didn't want the 500 to end under caution so they looked at the situation and decided in the split second to keep it green. It happened so quickly and the race to finish continued so the Fox cameras didn't stay with the 9. Heading into turn 3 Ryan Blaney pushed Ryan Newman past Denny, who immediately got behind the 12 of Blaney and shoved him as hard as he could. Now I know I'm a Denny fan but the guy knows how to race in these situations, he is the new king of Daytona. He did exactly what he should've done, he didn't give up. Denny pushing Blaney gave Blaney a huge run on Newman. And Newman blocked him, twice, this is the Daytona 500 people you block as long as you can. After the 2nd block, Blaney decided to give Newman a push, in doing so though he hooked the bumper of Newman and shot him into the wall. Denny barely missed him, and the spin took a lot of momentum from Blaney. Denny passed Blaney coming to the line and won the 2nd closest Daytona 500 ever, (he already won the closest 500 ever in 2016). Now back to Newman, after hitting the wall and flipping Newman's car was compromised and upside down when he was hit by a Corey Lajoie, a driver on a lesser team that was in the running because of the rules package. Newman's car then slid down the front stretch on it's roof before coming to a stop somewhere in turn 1, near the exit of pit road.

The track crews quickly got to Newman, while the Fox broadcast wasn't sure who won. They really didn't know what to say or do. NASCAR eventually ruled Denny the winner, his 3rd 500 victory. Fox did a split screen of Denny's in car and Newman's care on it's roof with a large amount of safety personnel around it. So us viewers at home, see that Newman isn't ok because we got picture in picture going, Denny Hamlin is in a race car with a helmet on, he can't see it, he's also unplugged his radio so communication can't be made. Denny proceeds to do some donuts in the grass, a subdued celebration for him, he is one of the better guys at burning it down after a win. He stayed off the track, didn't even go get the flag. Then Denny went to Victory Lane, and saw the accident on the video board before getting out of the car, his entire demeanor changed. His interview with Fox was very low key, he made sure he put Newman first then talked about the race. There wasn't the usual coke shower or anything. I saw on social media people calling Denny classless and other names, it wasn't his choice to have the victory lane celebration, that's the sport. Once the team knew the seriousness of the crash they were very somber and didn't get overly joyous.

Meanwhile the crews were busy trying to remove Ryan Newman from his car, he was the most important thing in that moment. NASCAR had most of their energy focused on the 6 car. The Fox producers tried to do the normal post race stuff, but it was horrifying to watch as all the drivers looked sick, especially Blaney who really wanted no part of being on TV. There was an ominous feeling on the broadcast. Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon were audibly disturbed in the TV booth and I think they couldn't get off the air quick enough for their liking. Eventually the crews got Newman out of the car and transported him directly to the hospital and thus began the longest 2 hours in NASCAR in a long time. There was no news of his condition which lead to speculation and lots of people assuming the worst. There was prayers, blame, and lots of differing opinions on twitter. I as someone who wears his heart on twitter during sporting events, was at first overjoyed with the finish, I didn't watch the 6 flip and get hit on the first watch as I was concentrating on the 11 and hoping he won. There had been so many accidents at the end of these races I was only focused on the finish, it wasn't until the Fox cameras stayed on the 6 that I realized what happened. After taking a minute, the joy of winning was quickly taken away with fears for the worst. It was as if anyone associated with Denny or his fans wasn't allowed to be happy. I understand the situation but man it was hard to watch. Finally after 2 hours NASCAR read a statement from Newman's race team announcing he was alive and in serious condition, with non life threatening injuries. They updated his status this afternoon that he was awake and talking, without revealing his injuries.

The entire saga of the last lap and how people reacted will what I remember about this Daytona 500, it was an incredible race, but that last 100 yards changed everything. It's moments like that that remind us that racing is dangerous and even though it's been 19 years since a death in NASCAR, it can still happen. How we react matters and what we must remember is not everyone has the same information as we do, it's a 2 1/2 mile track, you can fit a football field on the grass between pit road and the front stretch. It was a scary situation and I feel for Ryan Newman and his family, but he knew the risks and he's spoken out about the cars flipping. We have 3 more races like this yet this year and all we can hope for is this accident isn't repeated.