Thrilling finish to a long Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Years ago, Ken Squier dubbed the Daytona 500 "The Great American Race," and until recently he couldn't have been more right.
It is quintessentially American – really big, really fast, sometimes flawed, but most of all, anyone, when given a chance, can win – even Jamie McMurray.
Less than six months ago, McMurray was a driver with an uncertain future. He was in the last year of his contract with Roush Fenway Racing, and anyone with a pulse inside the Sprint Cup garage knew he was on his way out. Armed with a modest resumé, he went looking for a new job. There weren't many to choose from, and ultimately he found one with his old boss, Chip Ganassi, whom McMurray left four seasons ago for the supposed greener pastures of Roush Fenway.
With his time at Roush coming to an end, McMurray had to go scrambling back to Ganassi at the end of last season. Less than three months later, in the first race of their reunion, they won the biggest one of them all.
"I'm not quitting again, just so you know guys," McMurray said to Ganassi and co-owner Felix Sebates following Sunday's 52nd running of the Daytona 500. "I'm staying."
McMurray's last-lap pass of Greg Biffle and his drag race to the checkered flag with a hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. made for a thrilling finish to what heretofore had been an excruciating long day full of frustration. One hundred twenty-three laps into the race, a 15-inch-long pothole formed in the middle of Turns 1 and 2, turning the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway into a parking lot. For nearly two hours, more than 150,000 fans at the track and millions of viewers at home were left to sit and wait and wait and wait as a repair crew attempted to fix the damage.
If this truly is NASCAR's Super Bowl, then the scene was the equivalent of the NFL halting its championship game midway through the third quarter to mow the grass.
When the fix finally did come, it didn't hold up long. Just 38 laps were run before front bumpers slamming the pavement opened the pothole again, prompting a second delay – this one 40 minutes.
"We inspected the track this morning, and there were no concerns," track president Robin Braig said, adding that the first delay in repair was due to the 50-degree weather that had ascended on northern Florida.
TV was left to interview driver after driver who had vacated their cars, while the track PA found Larry the Cable Guy, who praised Daytona International Speedway for having "the cleanest port-a-potties." Alas, the Great American Race had turned into the Great American Wait.
"Obviously the red flags are unfortunate; no one wants to see that," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "But hopefully what fans will really remember about this race tomorrow and years to come is that dramatic finish – that 88 [Earnhardt Jr.] cutting through the entire field, really having a great finish for the win and a great win for Earnhardt Ganassi with Jamie McMurray."
Poston is right in pumping up the action – the record 21 leaders, the last-lap charge that ended in a nail-biting finish made for a great race when they were actually racing. And had Earnhardt been able to pull it off, the pothole would have already been knighted by Junior Nation.
But while drivers were quick to come to the defense of NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway, saying there is no way to foresee a pothole forming on the track, none of this will do anything to soften the PR blow. For the second year in a row, NASCAR's biggest event failed to be what Squier dubbed it to be.
Last year fans left the track screaming about the swiftness with which NASCAR called the race because of rain. This year it was a pothole that took so long to fix that a race that started at 1:19 p.m. ET didn't end until more than six hours later. And so once again, on the one day a year NASCAR gets its shot to crack the sports radio airwaves that are normally reserved for stick-and-ball talk, the discussion won't be flattering.
"We're the world center of racing," Braig said. "This is the Daytona 500. This is not supposed to happen."
Of course, none of this bothered McMurray, who withstood a pair of Green-White-Checker finishes that stretched the race eight laps beyond its intended length. After getting his car stuck in the soggy infield grass while doing victory doughnuts, McMurray hopped out, laid face down on the turf and kissed the ground.
Despite the tarnish, it's still hallowed; it's still Daytona; and it's still the one race a year where the winner cries in victory lane.
"I'm trying to be genuine and as sincere as I can and not sound cliché," McMurray said. "As a kid growing up, this is what you dream of – of being able to win the Daytona 500."
When asked how he was going to celebrate, he replied, "After [last year's win at] Talladega, we went to McDonald's. I think tonight we'll have a Big Mac."
Sounds just about right.
