Everyone Runs Out Of Gas, Kurt Busch Wins Daytona 500
This year's Daytona 500 was stacked with contenders, with superteams Stewart-Haas Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, and Penske Racing supplying the grid with no fewer than 17 cars driven by good restrictor plate racers. After a gaggle of mid-race incidents, only four found themselves in contention with ten to go. When all was said and done, only two had the fuel to actually finish the race.
In a race that marked the debut of NASCAR's new segment-based format, the race neatly organized itself into a fitting three-act structure. In Act One, the story of the race was Joe Gibbs racing and their unique strategy of pitting all six of their affiliated cars off-cycle, with the express goal of running them all together and staying on the lead lap after every stop. The gamble payed off twice, even when the plan's execution was sloppy. When they stopped on lap sixteen of segment one, two cars had to stop again with flat-spotted tires and the team was left with just a pack of four ahead of the leaders, but a well-time caution still fell before the leading pack could catch that group, allowing Kyle Busch to grab the lead and hang on to win Segment 1. They tried the system again with four cars in Segment 2, and while they weren't fast enough to stay ahead of the lead pack, they had the numbers to lead that pack once they joined it. It looked like the system was set to work again, and Kyle Busch looked to be in position to win the race, but just as the plan came together, Busch's car blew a rear tire, he spun into the field, and the wreck would eliminate him, race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Toyota program teammates Erik Jones and Matt Kenseth.
When the race resumed after a short red flag, a series of mid-sized wrecks within the pack followed. Kevin Harvick won Segment 2, but just a few laps into Segment 3, would be a victim himself. He'd be collected in a wreck that started when Jamie McMurray bumped into Jimmie Johnson, pushing Johnson into Trevor Bayne in an ill-advised middle lane, and ending the days of a group including Johnson, Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Danica Patrick. A few laps after the race resumed, Elliott Sadler would be caught between a slowing Ryan Blaney and a not at all slowing Jeffrey Earnhardt, causing him to spin into two other cars. Just a few laps after that, the would-be Big One came, as Jamie McMurray pushed Chase Elliott and caused a wreck that collected McMurray, Daniel Suarez, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Newman. An incident involving Joey Gase and Chase Elliott, who sustained minor damage a few times but always had a healthy enough car to contend, would bring out a fourth caution in quick succession, but once the race resumed, it finally entered its final rhythm.
In that third act, a group of about twelve drivers found themselves jostling for position up front, with Joey Logano and Kyle Larson leading the majority of the laps until Chase Elliott found himself at the front of a single-file group with ten to go. The field, now well removed from the final stops of the race did everything they could to save fuel, but the moves began with six to go. First it was the trio of Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, and Ryan Blaney, but Logano never got the help he needed and didn't get a chance to fight among the leaders.
Chase Elliott, who led for a long time and didn't really have a chance to save anything, ran out of fuel with three to go, and the chaos began. Kyle Larson made a few quick moves, sliding out of the pack to just pass one car each time, and found himself the beneficiary of Elliott's issue, while an impatient Martin Truex Jr. drove back down to the inside to work with Logano. Ryan Blaney worked his way past everyone around him into third, and when Larson ran out of fuel with half a lap to go, he looked like he had a chance to run down the leader and win the race. Kurt Busch had the fuel and the space over Blaney to make it to the flag, however, and while he might have lost a 201 lap race, he would hang on for that half a lap to win the race for the first time in his career.
Though Kurt Busch has long been regarded as an elite restrictor plate racer, this win marks his first at Daytona or Talladega in a championship points-paying race. The win also marks the first in the Daytona 500 for Stewart-Haas Racing, the first win for the Tony Stewart co-owned team since his retirement last season.
NASCAR's regular season continues next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and an always-dense schedule means all 35 remaining rounds to be held in the next 38 weeks.
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