NASCAR is back and better than ever, and today was the biggest race of the NASCAR season the Daytona 500, and boy was it a race for the ages. This race had one of the biggest followings I've ever seen, all because of the history that was made before the race even started.
The 500 made history while in qualifying. Danica Patrick was the first women to ever win the pole in a Sprint Cup race. She ran the fastest lap around the track at 196.46 mph, and unheard of speed in today's restricter plate racing.
That's not the only reason this race had so much hype, the Nationwide race the night before helped out a little. There was the biggest wreck I've ever seen in racing on the final lap coming into the tri-oval. A grand total of 13 cars were involved in the wreck, and one left the track surface, and if it wasn't for the catch fence, would have landed 30 rows into the grand stands. All the driver were okay, but there was a total of 28 fans that were injured from debris flying into the stands. Everyone who had to be taken to the hospital would be ok and everyone was in stable condition this morning.
Let's get to today race. It was exciting from the drop of the green flag, though all the drivers were being a bit more careful because of the events in the Nationwide series. Danica didn't last long out front as she was quickly shuffled to the middle of the pack. Jimmy Johnson on the other hand got out and lead a few laps before giving it up to teammate Jeff Gordon. The race picked up 33 laps into it, there was a wreck taking out 5 cars. One of witch was the driver who, in my opinion, had the car to beat in Tony Stewart.
There were many more wrecks in this race, but that wasn't the most exciting part of the race. Once again, like in Nationwide race, it would come down to a green, white, checkered for the race win. Matt Kenseth who lead the most laps, as did teammate Kyle Bush, went out with engine issues. Danica Patrick was in the lead coming to the green, white, checkered, but that would be short lived. Danica would get rushed by Johnson and most of the field, she would finish 8th.
Johnson would get a run to take the lead, but would have the rest of the field coming for him, including hat of teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr would be bushed from 13th all the way p into the second position by Mark Martin, and I think had a chance to take the lead and the win. From what I saw, Jr and Martin had a run on Johnson, and could have taken the race from him. It looked like Jr eased up and gave Johnson his second Daytona 500 victory.
After the carnage in the Nationwide Series, this race had good action, tight racing, a few wrecks, and was just good old fashion racing for the lead in the end. This race is one of the reasons I love NASCAR. It's nothing but throttle, high speeds, and bumper to bumper racing. Thankfully there was no wrecks as bad as there was in the Nationwide Series, and that everyone involved in that wreck (fans in all) were okay. This may change the sport a little bit with safety of the fans at the track, but there's one thing that can't be taken away for this sport, and that's the excitement of racing at close to 200 mph. I'm glad that NASCAR is back from their short offseason, and can't wait to see what happens this season with the new Gen 6 cars.
Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports
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