RICK @ the RACES ( 26/27/28 Feb 2012)
It’s that time of year again, where my local racing opportunities are reduced, it’s too wet for regular events and the ice is no longer safe for racing . This past weekend, I thought it would be easy to get my racing ‘fix’ with Sunday’s live televising of the Daytona 500, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
After having to endure an afternoon of listening to the Waltrip brothers and Larry McReynolds filling in time while it rained, NASCAR finally made the decision to postpone until Monday. As a regular fan of weekly grass roots racing, I’m used to rain outs, but this was a ‘first’ for the Daytona 500. The race was rescheduled for ‘prime time’ TV on Monday night, and I was lucky enough to be home from work for the 7-00 pm start.
It turned out to be one of the ‘wackiest’ of nights.
Early casualties were the Hendricks team duo of , Jimmie Johnson who hit the wall on lap one, and Jeff Gordon who went out with a blown motor.
In between the occasional wreck or two, things were going well until 40 laps from the end when a bizarre incident occurred after a caution came out . ( I can’t remember what it was for, but think it was debris on the track).
During the yellows the Juan Pablo Montoya car had a mechanical failure, sending it crashing into one of the on track jet dryers. It created a huge fireball as the dryer and race track were ignited with jet fuel.
Luckily there were no injuries to anyone, but the clean up operation meant a long delay. The race was eventually restarted, but by now it was well after 11-00 pm.
The checkers finally fell to Matt Kenseth at around 12-45 am on Tuesday morning !
Matt has been the long time favorite of www.rickattheraces.com webmaster Craig Revelle, so I’ll pass this weeks report over to him for his words on the victory.
With the Daytona 500 running on a Monday night in the prime time viewing slot for the first time in the 54 year history of the Great American Race you almost knew that something big was going to happen. Add that to how Friday night’s truck race, and Saturday’s Nationwide Series ended up, this years Daytona 500 had the potential to be HUGE.
To set the stage….I have been Matt Kenseth fan since 1998 when Kenseth was competing in the former Busch Series, battling with Dale Earnhardt Jr each week. This was before either driver had ever made a start in the Sprint Cup Series.
For the entire month of February I had a good feeling about Matt’s chances in the 500. He tested well, and when practice opened he was at or near the top of the speed charts with the Roush-Fenway Ford Racing brigade. Matt was fast in the Bud Shootout the previous week, but got caught up in a crash, but Thrusday’s Gatorade Twin 150’s was clearly an indication as Kenseth won the second qualifying event.
It rained at Daytona all day Sunday, and after several hours of waiting for the official word from NASCAR the race had been postponed with a Monday start at lunchtime. The forecast wasn’t looking good for that either, and sure enough, on Monday morning NASCAR made the announcement that the race would be held on Monday evening at 7pm. The rain had cleared out early in the afternoon for the most part, and by race time, there was just a small chance of rain remaining.
The 500 got off to a wild start with a crash just a few hundred feet past the start finish line after completing just one lap. The race took out several contenders including Jimmie Johnson. Danica Patrick was also eliminated from contention as well. It was a tough week for Danica…and none of her own doing. I am not a big fan of Danica and the hype that comes along with her, without the results to back it up, and its the same reason why I was never a fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
For most of the race, it had the usual Daytona 500 flow, some crashes and some large pack racing, as opposed to the two car tandems that had happened over the last couple years. At lap 160 though one of the scariest moments in recent years took place when something broke on Juan Montoya’s car as he was attempting to catch the field under caution and he smashed into one of the Jet Dryer machines and that caused a huge fireball, and sent 200 gallons of jet fuel spilling onto the track. Thankfully, the track safety crew member was able to escape the truck, before the entire system was engulfed in flames. At that point of the race, there was plenty of doubt whether they would even be able to restart the race. When the caution first came out for a blown motor and the possibility of a rain shower approaching the track it was Dave Blaney and his team that was at the front of the field and would have been the Daytona 500 winner if the race had been called. You would think with that kind of fire there would damage to the racing surface, but after two hours of cleanup, racing resumed.
Part of me was really hoping for NASCAR to call the race. An under funded team like Tommy Baldwin Racing, and a driver with strong ties to the DIRT racing scene, I would have loved to see him win this race, as it would have been unbelievable for their entire organization.
The race did resume however, and Matt Kenseth went on to win his second Daytona 500. It is a fantastic way to start of the season, and I look forward to following Matt the rest of the season as he goes after his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.