The Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Daytona 500
Written by Sheila Scarborough · February 18, 2007
After weeks of cheating scandals and family fueds, everyone was ready to just go racin’. Even the media at Daytona was looking for some “new news” and comic relief, ironically provided by drag racing’s Funny Car funny guy John Force.
The much-anticipated race day arrived with temperatures in the low 50s, the coldest Daytona 500 in ten years. High winds of up to 25 mph ruffled the surface of 44-acre Lake Lloyd in the track infield, and the crosswind coming down out of the Turn Two bank made the driving even trickier than old-school racing on the beach sand.
Baseball’s Cal Ripken, Jr. drove the Corvette pace car, and pole winner Dave Gilliland kept things looking good early on for the candy men of Yates Racing, as Gilliland held the lead for 18 laps and beat Tony Stewart out of the box for the first pit. Kurt Busch led for another 18 before Stewart took the lead at lap 49.
Kyle Petty’s blown tire on lap 79 sent debris in the air, then several cars including Stewart and Gilliland got a little munched up trying to exit the next pit stop. Kevin Harvick led the field to green on lap 84, then Kurt Busch took the lead back one lap later and mostly held it until lap 150, when Stewart had impressively climbed back out of his problems to take the lead.
The feeling of accomplishment didn’t last long, as Stewart and Busch collided in lap 153, Turn 4; Smoke and Busch were severely damaged and both were knocked out of the race.
The winds died down by about 2/3 of the way through the race. At lap 159, Martin Truex, Jr. had the lead, and held it until Matt Kenseth took over at lap 170.
The next big crash-fest gave the leaderboard another huge shake-up. Cup champion Jimmie Johnson got loose in Turn 2, lap 174 and was done for the day, along with several other drivers including Ryan Newman. By lap 180, sentimental favorite 48 year-old Mark Martin took the lead of a tightly-packed field.
At lap 196, another group of drivers including Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Ricky Rudd were wiped out when Jamie McMurray smacked the wall, causing a red flag to clear the mess off of the speedway.
Upon restart, a few extra laps were added and the frenzied rush to the finish began, with the veteran Martin trying to hang onto the lead.
What a frenzy it was, as Kevin Harvick matched his first Daytona Busch win yesterday by battling and beating Mark Martin by a .02 second nose in a drag race to the finish.
“Happy” Harvick had started at 34th, the lowest-ever start for a Daytona 500 winner.
Jeff Burton was third and Mike Wallace fourth in a Chevy sweep of the top four finishers.
Even as Harvick and Martin were gunning for the finish, there was a big crash going on behind them that sent drivers in all directions, including Clint Bowyer who slid across the finish line on his roof and on fire. Some may argue that this should have brought a caution, but the disaster area was well behind the Harvick-Martin duel so NASCAR “let them play.”
What a race; what a start to the season.
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What about the safety of the drivers behind the wreck? Nascar preaches safety all the time ( unless it’s the last lap of the Daytona 500 and the wreck’s behind the leaders ). Luckily the 07 flipped back over before it burned too much. If wreckins’ racin’ then I guess it’s okay.If a wreck brings out the caution at any other time when the wreck happens why not now? Totally irresponsible on NASCAR’s part. Maybe thats why tv viewership is down ( and using Kelly Clarkson ie. she’s can’t sing ). If a driver had been killed because the caution wasn’t thrown, how the France’s explain that to the family and friends, “thats racin’”…
Why did Nascar not throw the yellow flag? When the wreck happened, the race was over and Mark Martin was clearly in the lead. is this how nascar is going to choose winners? Take about cheating..kinda like the pot calling the kettle black.
Harvick isn’t a drag racer….he turns left.
Diddo Bob. very well put.
Diddo Bob and Dragginlady. Nascar really sucked on this one. The yellow flag should have been thrown as soon as they were wrecking. Mark won the race and nascar said it ended under caution. Well Mark was ahead at time of wreck. Nascar just seems to bend the rules in their favor and in favor of the almighty dollar.
Oh come on, this is what NASCAR has become: a wreckfest with close finishes - and the fans love it.
- If you want to see a wreck-free follow the leader race, watch Champ Car or F1
- If you want to watch close racing, minimal wrecks and horrible car counts, watch the IRL
As far as I’m concerned, NASCAR is the safest racing series in the world. Rubbin’ is racin’ in every NASCAR driver’s view point - that’s why their NASCAR drivers. And to cap off the 07 comment, yeah the fire scared me too, but there’s two things keeping your fatality statement alive
1.) There’s this thing called a firewall
2.) Bowyers flip was intense and probably made him have one hell of a headache, but the impact was minimal compared to the wrecks that have sent drivers like Jerry N. out of racing.
NASCAR is not racing. It’s a cartoon fest for low IQ, high weight losers. Why don’t they let the teams build the cars out to gain advantage? It was always a blast to see the improvements that came out of NASCAR pre-dipshit days. Look at the SuperBird, all the great engine and tranny improvements.
These days I don’t spend a second watching WWF on wheels.
Amazon is advertising “NASCAR For Dummies” ROTFLMAO! They assume the trailer dwelling set can read! HAH! FAT chance!
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