NASCAR at Daytona 2015: Winners and Losers from the Daytona 500
What a race.
In thrilling fashion, the 2015 Daytona 500 is in the books, and the NASCAR Sprint Cup season is officially underway.
Joey Logano held off a plethora of former champions in the first Daytona 500 of his career and established himself as one of the favorites for the championship this year.
Meanwhile, we saw past champions rack up DNFs, young guns push their idols and a legend of the sport attempt to complete a fairytale week. It was great television from start to finish.
Here are the winners and losers from the Daytona 500.
Winner: Drama at the Daytona 500
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Over and over on the Fox broadcast of this Daytona 500, announcers referred to it as one of the most exciting Daytona 500s they had ever seen. They weren't exaggerating, either.
Most of the final laps were filled with three-wide racing and constant lead changes, and a Justin Allgaier wreck with under five laps to go set up a red flag and a green-white-checkered finish.
Despite the fact that Hendrick Motorsports drivers had the lead for most of the race, Logano was able to hold them all off and get the win under a caution flag to become the second-youngest winner in the history of The Great American Race.
After a week that saw injuries and legal matters take over the news cycle, it was great to remember how exciting this sport can be and why we keep tuning in Sunday after Sunday. Overall, it was just the perfect way to start off the 2015 season.
Loser: The Defending Champion
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There hasn't been a defending champion in Victory Lane at the Daytona 500 since Sterling Martin in 1995, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s bad decision late in the race guaranteed that there wouldn't be for the 20th year in a row.
After having one of the fastest cars all week long, Junior dropped from third to 20th with 19 laps to go after he made a bad move on a restart.
He was very frustrated with himself after the race, telling reporters (via Nate Ryan of NBC Sports):
"I made a real bad decision on that restart. You can’t afford to do that. I got shuffled back and lost a ton of spots. I had one of the best cars out there, which gave me a lot of confidence to keep digging.
It’s real disappointing because the Nationwide team gave me the best car and should have won the race. Just real disappointed I didn’t do everything I needed to do.
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Earnhardt ended up fighting his way back to third place by the end of the race, but he had a great chance to win if he didn't make that mistake.
Winner: Joey Logano
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It's been a good few months for Logano. He got married during the offseason, and then he won the first race of the year for his first Daytona 500 victory.
"I can't believe it. This is absolutely amazing," Logano said on Fox after the race. "This is awesome. I was so nervous the whole race."
Logano's triumph was even more sweet because of the transformation his career has undergone over the past few years. As Des Bieler of The Washington Post wrote, the beginning of Logano's career was a whirlwind:
"Logano first competed in NASCAR’s top circuit in 2008, at the age of 18, with his first full season coming a year later. His precocious talent had him ticketed for instant stardom—and caused muttering among some veterans, including the “Sliced Bread” moniker—especially when he won at Loudon, N.H., midway through the 2009 campaign.
But a funny thing happened to Logano quickly becoming the Next Big Thing: the process quickly bogged down. He had no wins in 2010 and 2011, then just one, with just one other top-five finish, in 2012.
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After struggling during the first few years of his career with Joe Gibbs Racing, Logano found new life with Team Penske in 2013. Last year, the 24-year-old Penske driver had a breakthrough season, winning five times and making it to the final race at Homestead with a chance to still win the championship. Then a late-race pit-road mistake took him out of contention.
But Logano wasn't rattled by the near-miss like so many others have been in the past. Instead, he came out in 2015 and won the biggest race of his career, holding off Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Denny Hamlin in a restart with two laps to go.
Watch out for the No. 22 car the rest of the year. Logano is going to be dangerous.
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Loser: Brad Keselowski
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Meanwhile, Logano's teammate Brad Keselowski didn't have such great race.
Keselowski, who started 39th, had finally fought his way into the top five when his engine blew up with only 40 laps to go.
“I guess an oil-containment issue,” Keselowski told Fox, as Chris Estrada of NBC Sports relayed. “It’s a shame. We were starting to get position. The last run here was right in front of us, and we were right up in the top 10, I think we had just gotten in the top five. But that’s just the way it goes.”
Keselowski was one of three drivers to have engine problems ruin their day—Landon Cassill's engine blew up about 20 laps into the race, and Ryan Blaney had engine problems late in the race as well.
The 2012 Sprint Cup champion is going to have to wait another year for a chance to win his first Daytona 500.
Winner: The New Pit-Road Officiating
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NASCAR unveiled automatic pit-road officiating for the 2015 season in an effort to stay on top of pit-road infractions, and it certainly delivered in the first Sprint Cup race of 2015.
Zack Albert of NASCAR.com explained the new system:
"The new system uses 45 high-definition cameras at every Sprint Cup track, recording and feeding video of every pit stall to a trackside hauler, where eight NASCAR officials monitor and rule on pit stops at a double-time rate of roughly eight seconds per car.
The process, rigorously checked during the late stages of 2014 and with file footage in the offseason, was also in place for testing during the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship opener, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
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All in all, 21 penalties were handed out on pit road at this Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson was penalized early for having his crew come out too soon. Carl Edwards and Kyle Larson were caught speeding. Aric Almirola was hit with a penalty for having too many men, and Justin Allgaier had an uncontrolled tire.
Drivers are going to have to be extra careful on pit road from now on—the cameras are watching them.
Loser: Tony Stewart
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Tony Stewart has three Sprint Cup championships to his name, and yet he has no Daytona 500 victories.
The dream for his first one died early on Sunday, as he lost control of his car and crashed into the wall on Turn 4 of Lap 41. Stewart made contact with Matt Kenseth and Ryan Blaney in the incident. He was not able to finish the race.
“That was 100 percent my fault,” Stewart told his team on the radio, as Matt Weaver of Popular Speed reported. “I can’t say anything. It just got tight, and there wasn’t a problem that I was aware of.”
The 43-year-old Stewart is coming off the worst year of his Sprint Cup career—he won zero races in 2014 and missed three races after the car he was driving struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. in a dirt-track race last summer.
He was said to be feeling good mentally and physically as the 2015 season began, but this Daytona 500 outing certainly wasn't the start to the year he was hoping for.
Winner: Jeff Gordon
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Let's start out with the bad stuff—Jeff Gordon wrecked on the final lap of the race when Austin Dillon tapped him and ended up finishing his final Daytona 500 in 32nd place.
However, Gordon was in great spirits after the race, and his final Great American Race will wind up being one he'll remember. After all, his No. 24 car did win the pole to start the week, and Gordon led 87 laps of the race.
"For some reason, I'm still smiling," he said on Fox after the race. "I enjoyed every moment of it. Obviously I enjoyed the first half more than the second half."
As Jay Busbee of Yahoo Sports writes, Gordon has every reason to smile even after the disappointing end:
"Of course, why shouldn't Gordon be at peace? He's done everything it's possible to do in the sport. He's won four championships. He's celebrated in victory lane more times than all but two drivers in history. He stood toe-to-toe with The Intimidator as a newcomer, and he's mentored an entire generation of champions as a veteran.
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One thing is certain: The Daytona 500 won't be the same next year without Gordon out there racing for the win.
Loser: Busch Brothers
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For the first time in 15 years, the Daytona 500 was run without a Busch brother in sight. While Kurt and Kyle Busch are off the track for very different reasons, they both are out of racing for the foreseeable future.
Kurt lost his spot in the Daytona 500 when he was suspended indefinitely on Friday after a Family Court Commissioner released his ruling on the restraining order granted to Kurt's ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll. The ruling stated that the commissioner believed that Kurt had committed an act of domestic violence.
Meanwhile, Kurt's younger brother Kyle sustained a broken leg and foot in a bad crash Saturday during the Xfinity Series race at Daytona when his car ran headfirst into an in-field wall that didn't have a SAFER barrier on it.
Kyle underwent a successful surgery on Saturday night, and his wife Samantha tweeted that they were watching the race from the hospital.
It's unclear when both Busch brothers will be able to return to racing.
Winner: Replacement Drivers
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With the Busch brothers both being sidelined at the last minute after their cars had already qualified for the race, two substitute drivers had to come in to save the day.
Regan Smith, a 31-year Xfinity Series driver who won the Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year award back in 2008, took over for the No. 41 car for Kurt Busch and Stewart-Haas Racing and ended up finishing 16th. Considering Kurt's legal troubles, Smith had been on-call all week long, but he didn't officially get the nod to race until Friday evening.
Matt Crafton had even less time to prepare to take over the No. 18 car for the injured Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing—he only found out he'd be racing on Saturday afternoon. However, the two-time defending Truck Series champion didn't get fazed and ended up finishing 19th.
Instead of watching the Daytona 500 from their couches, both Smith and Crafton were able to finish in the top 20. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Loser: The Sprint Unlimited Winner
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Matt Kenseth had one of the fastest cars all week, and he proved that he was one of the guys to beat at the Daytona 500 when he won the Sprint Unlimited race last Saturday.
But the Daytona 500 didn't go as Kenseth had hoped, as he found himself caught up in the wreck with Tony Stewart early in the race. While his car wasn't damaged too badly and he was able to get back out and finish the race, he was a couple of laps down midway through and could never make up the time.
Kenseth, who has won the Daytona 500 two times but hasn't won a Sprint Cup race in over a year, finished 35th.
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