What a weekend to remember from Daytona. The Nationwide Series race was setup to be perhaps the big event of the weekend upstaging the Sprint Cup race given it was the debut of the new car for the series, featuring Mustang stickers for Fords and Challenger stickers for Challengers. Truthfully, on the track, the Fords didn’t look like Mustangs at all. The Dodges were far more convincing. Same could be said of their performance given team Penske gained three of the top four starting positions. However, the night belonged to Dale Earnhardt Jr. who arranged a special deal with Richard Childress to drive a #3 Chevrolet in honor of his father’s induction into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame. The car was painted in the yellow/blue scheme of his father’s first successful run, though the colors were reversed from the Senior ride. As if his dad was riding shotgun, Junior won the race in great Earnhardt fashion a fine accomplishment for a driver who has known so much frustration in recent times.
Saturday night was for the big boys in Sprint Cup. The race was delayed almost two hours by rain. The buzz was all about how the spoiler and a slightly larger bore for the restrictor plate would effect competition after a couple gruesome wrecks in practice.
Leading from the pole, Kevin Harvick would win the race but between the initial green flag and the final checker, what happened in the Coke Zero 400 provided some of the most intense and insane racing ever seen on the circuit. At first blush, if one reported seventeen cars finished on the lead lap that would not be big news, but it’s what happened to the rest of the field that is perhaps the big story of this year’s July race at Daytona.
The early stages of the race were tame enough until lap 105 when Juan Montoya drove Kyle Busch in the wall eliminating him from the race. The next three cautions wouldn’t eliminate much hardware from the field then came lap 149 clearing out almost half the field. What started as slight contact between the #31 car driven by Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch in the #2 Dodge, turned out into one of the ugliest wrecks in NASCAR history. Few could forget the image of members of the #48 crew carrying Mark Martin from his burned out car off the track for care. Much scrap metal was collected during a lengthy red flag to clean up the mess, but all was not done yet as the #2, 19, and 17 were involved in an incident eliminating the #19 and #17. Kurt Busch remained competitive. The final shootout saw Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne attempting to hold back Kevin Harvick who raced a masterful race despite of all the factors which helped lead him to his victory.
The end result of the contest thoroughly shook up the points standings moving Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the exclusive top 12 club. Jimmie Johnson only fell one position but lost many points for his DNF. Kyle Busch fell back three spots while mark Martin dropping two positions fell out of the top 12. Ryan Newman lost one position and a lot of points while Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, and Martin Truex not only fell back two positions but also moved further from striking distance of the top 12 with only two drivers Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin with one race’s distance from the promised land. Kasey Kahne moves closer to competition now within striking distance gaining four spots in the standings.
What can be learned from this race will be negligible since the track surface not replaced since 1988 will be torn up for a much needed new surface in February. Teams will head north to Charlotte ready to regroup and head for a much more typical racing environment for Chicago’s Saturday night race in Chicagoland. While no race can be taken for granted, it will be a good race for teams to regain their stance for the remainder of the series. How welcome will the following week off before the Brickyard be in the summer of 2010?
Saturday night was for the big boys in Sprint Cup. The race was delayed almost two hours by rain. The buzz was all about how the spoiler and a slightly larger bore for the restrictor plate would effect competition after a couple gruesome wrecks in practice.
Leading from the pole, Kevin Harvick would win the race but between the initial green flag and the final checker, what happened in the Coke Zero 400 provided some of the most intense and insane racing ever seen on the circuit. At first blush, if one reported seventeen cars finished on the lead lap that would not be big news, but it’s what happened to the rest of the field that is perhaps the big story of this year’s July race at Daytona.
The early stages of the race were tame enough until lap 105 when Juan Montoya drove Kyle Busch in the wall eliminating him from the race. The next three cautions wouldn’t eliminate much hardware from the field then came lap 149 clearing out almost half the field. What started as slight contact between the #31 car driven by Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch in the #2 Dodge, turned out into one of the ugliest wrecks in NASCAR history. Few could forget the image of members of the #48 crew carrying Mark Martin from his burned out car off the track for care. Much scrap metal was collected during a lengthy red flag to clean up the mess, but all was not done yet as the #2, 19, and 17 were involved in an incident eliminating the #19 and #17. Kurt Busch remained competitive. The final shootout saw Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne attempting to hold back Kevin Harvick who raced a masterful race despite of all the factors which helped lead him to his victory.
The end result of the contest thoroughly shook up the points standings moving Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the exclusive top 12 club. Jimmie Johnson only fell one position but lost many points for his DNF. Kyle Busch fell back three spots while mark Martin dropping two positions fell out of the top 12. Ryan Newman lost one position and a lot of points while Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, and Martin Truex not only fell back two positions but also moved further from striking distance of the top 12 with only two drivers Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin with one race’s distance from the promised land. Kasey Kahne moves closer to competition now within striking distance gaining four spots in the standings.
What can be learned from this race will be negligible since the track surface not replaced since 1988 will be torn up for a much needed new surface in February. Teams will head north to Charlotte ready to regroup and head for a much more typical racing environment for Chicago’s Saturday night race in Chicagoland. While no race can be taken for granted, it will be a good race for teams to regain their stance for the remainder of the series. How welcome will the following week off before the Brickyard be in the summer of 2010?
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