There was a wreck after 14 laps and then a rain delay that lasted nearly six hours. No, the Daytona 500 was not the smooth running affair that the sanctioning body or the TV Network wanted, but once it was restarted and the action kicked-off again, the race was really fun to watch. The ending was fun to watch if you love underdog stories, fire, and insanity. Michael McDowell was leading the race by a slim margin when the yellow flag was thrown on the final lap which made him the winner. A guy who has started hundreds of races over a yeoman like career in the NASCAR top level series, McDowell finally got his first win and it came at the sport’s most historic and prestigious event. Amazing stuff.
After the huge early race cars, there was not a whole lot to do other than watch it rain and consume some other NASCAR content on FOX for a while. The documentary called “Golden Hour” which documented the making of the movie Days of Thunder was awesome. Drivers were seen sitting in local drive through lines with their fire suits on to get a bit to eat, and the whole sport was just literally on pause. Amazingly because of the rules, teams with busted cars from the early crash were not able to wrench on their stuff for that whole period. They plotted and planned but were unable to do the work until the race restarted. It made for a great thrash.
Watch the end of the race as called by Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon, and Clint Bowyer in the booth!
Nascar lost me at the garage door pull rope fiasco. Actually, they were losing me long before that, with the chase within a chase stupidity. Haven’t watched it in a long time and have no plans to. You can bash me if you want to but as of now we still live in a free nation and my view is as stated.
Well said, sir.
I stopped watch NASCRAP after they accused Bill Simpson of Dale Earnhardt’s passing, was starting to watch a little of it last year until the rope incident drove me away again. Didn’t even know there was a race yesterday.
Interesting you would mention that incident Duster, I just finished reading Bill Simpson’s biography, the one he co-wrote before the death of Dale Earnhardt. Very entertaining and informative. I’ll be reading his second book dealing with the Nascar blame game over Dale’s death next. I’d also like to read Smokey Yunick’s biography but it’s out of print and they want a fortune for a copy. Both of these guys were extremely talented innovators, it is people like them who make waves in their field of endeavor that are felt long after they are gone.
I watched it since it was on so late and it was OK. Kinda of boring until the last pit cycle mixed it up a bit. Otherwise it was a follow the leader type race. That crash at the end looked scary but everybody was fine showing how far safety equipment has come!
My favorite comments are the ones from folks who claim to not care about a certain race series but know all the latest gossip and goings on. Hmmm…….
The race was pretty good my only gripe is they should’ve started at noon as they’ve done for decades and we wouldn’t have to stay up till damn near 1am on the east coast. I understand the late start for the west coast but is getting up at 9 all that bad to watch it over there?
The stupidity of the rope pull investigation over nothing was the final straw for me to.
But in this finish, does it not matter that the winner caused a horrendous crash, wiping out the leaders? I would think he’d be black flagged and sent to the back.
Watched my toilet flush a few times over the weekend. Did I miss something more exciting???
They lost me when Dale died .