NASCAR: Matt Kenseth Wins Wildest Daytona 500

Racin’ with Russ—This year’s Daytona 500 started more than a day-and-a-half late due to rain, then began auspiciously with a second lap wreck, taking out contenders such as Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne and rookie Danica Patrick.

The wreck was kicked off by Elliott Sadler getting into the back of Johnson. Patrick returned later to putt around the back of the pack and finish 38th. Out front early was Greg Biffle with a very strong running Ford, yet strong runs by Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth could not be ignored.

For much of the race, a return to the single file choo-choo style racing took place. At the half, Hamlin pushed Martin Truex Jr. into the lead around Biffle to claim the $200,000 halfway bonus money.

Several drivers took turns out front before a bizarre incident occurred with 40 laps remaining. After David Stremme blew up his engine, the caution flew. When Juan Montoya returned to the track, he lost control on the backstretch and hit the back of one of the jet dryers, erupting the whole apparatus into a giant fireball.

It took fire squads quite a while to put the fire out before officials had to decide if the hundreds of gallons of jet fuel hurt the racing surface or not.

Once back to racing, numerous wrecks filled the final 40 laps with several top runners such as Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne sidelined as a result. That left the strong running Fords of Biffle and Kenseth out front. The two got together on the first green-white-checker start and motored away with only Earnhardt in the final top three mix.

Kenseth crossed the line first to claim his second Daytona 500 win with Earnhardt, Biffle, Hamlin and Jeff Burton earning the top five high-paying spots.

Overall, it was a very good race with lots of action and despite the two-hour delay for cleaning up the massive fire on the backstretch, a memorable event.

Nationwide

This race wound up just as wild as most of the rest of the races run at the big Florida track with tandem, straight line and pack drafting.

Danica Patrick took her first pole the day before and brought the big snarling pack to the stripe. No less than 16 drivers took a shot out front with Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch leading the most laps during a wreck-filled race with nearly half the field damaged in one way or another by the end.

With the Busch brothers Kyle and Kurt at the head of the pack on the final lap, Stewart and Elliott Sadler among a few other top runners made a last-ditch charge to zip by the brothers, only to tangle up in a big wad into each other and the outside wall. That left an open track for James Buescher to weave through some debris and capture his first Nationwide win with Brad Keselowski, Sadler, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon to grab the top five spots.

Patrick wound up getting turned around early in the race by her teammate Whitt, whereupon she tore into the young driver with an on radio profanity laced tirade. The GoDaddy driver netted a 38th place finish.

Camping World Truck Series

The season's opening weekend kicked off with the trucks taking to the big Daytona Speedway and Miguel Paludo claiming his very first pole.

Eight drivers went home early with a full field in place. After Pauldo led many of the opening laps, he exited the day while running among the top three when his truck veered wildly to the left and hard into the infield wall and out of the show.

Others such as Nelson Piquet Jr, James Buescher and Johnny Sauter led the lion’s share of laps to what turned out to be a wreck-filled affair.

During the final few laps, it appeared that Sauter was well on his way to the big win, only to be turned from behind and into the outside wall by John King as they passed the start/finish line.

Sauter’s day was done, but he was okay. That set up a third and final green-white-checker run with rookie King out front. With King’s teammate Timothy Peters lined up right behind him, the two zoomed towards the finish line as yet another yellow flag emerged with another multi-car wreck ending the lengthy affair.

King’s eighth truck start netted a very big win for the young driver with Peters, Justin Lofton, Travis Kvapil and Jason White capping the top five spots.

From Rumorville

Look for fines and penalties sometime later this week in regards to Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup car failing pre-race inspection with illegal “C” pillars. The parts were cut off the car and confiscated. I’d expect $50,000 plus fines in addition to race suspensions for crew members such as crew chief Chad Knaus.

Next week, RWR will review the NASCAR results from Phoenix along with more racing news from around the globe.