The Pack is Back at Daytona
FEB. 19, 2012
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The pack is back at Daytona International Speedway.
For 82 laps (including seven laps of “overtime”), 25 Sprint Cup drivers put on a wild show Saturday night in the Budweiser Shootout, illustrating that NASCAR’s off-season attempts to improve racing at its two restrictor-plate tracks worked well.
The race produced the closest finish in the 34-year history of the Shootout, the first on-track competition of the new season. Kyle Busch, who saved his car spectacularly during a pair of incidents late in the race, passed Tony Stewart in the homestretch to win by .01 of a second.
NASCAR brought new rules to the start of the new season, hoping to limit the impact of tandem drafting at Daytona. The changes produced much more “pack” drafting, but the crowded traffic and apparent instability of the cars produced several major accidents.
Busch survived all of them, then outran Stewart in the shadow of the checkered flag to score his first victory in the non-points race.
Rolling home third was Richard Petty Motorsports Ford driver Marcos Ambrose, one of three Blue Oval drivers in the top 10. Greg Biffle, who led 17 laps, finished sixth, and Carl Edwards was ninth.
Ambrose, racing in the Shootout for the first time, led the race’s next-to-last lap as the drivers rolled through a green-white-checkered restart. But Stewart and Busch drafted past Ambrose and Brad Keselowski to move into first and second on the final lap.
“I’m out there driving the Stanley car with one lap to go thinking I’m going to win the race, and I get freight-trained,” Ambrose said. “There’s a lot to learn out there.”
Ambrose called the finish “a blur. … There are people you like to run with, and you try to find them before the end, but it was thinned out a lot by the end of the race. I looked around, and there were probably about 10 cars left that could run, so we missed a lot out there – a lot of incidents and accidents.”
Indeed, the race was replete with big accidents, and those who were able to roll home in the top five displayed some of the evening’s most alert driving, along with a little luck.
“It was a crazy race, that’s for sure,” Ambrose said. “I saw pretty much every spin, crash. I was either in it or around it or just dodged it. I’m just really proud to run fast tonight.
“We’ve got a lot of steam under the hood this week, which is great. The Ford department has done a wonderful job with the engines.”
The race was pushed into overtime by a sensational crash featuring a flipping Jeff Gordon with two laps to go in regulation.
Gunning for positions, Gordon tapped Kyle Busch, and the impact sent Gordon sliding into the outside wall. He was hit by teammate Jimmie Johnson, and Gordon’s car turned on its side and then went into a series of rolls before landing on its roof.
He climbed from the car and was not injured.
Busch made another fine save after being hit by Gordon.
The ensuing green-white-checkered started with Stewart in front. Ambrose, Keselowski and Ryan Newman drafted past Stewart at the start of the two-lap chase, but Stewart roared back with drafting help from Kyle Busch.
After pushing Stewart to the lead, Busch whipped around Stewart on the outside coming to the checkered flag and won the race by inches – .01 of a second – despite driving a Toyota damaged by several incidents.
The front pack was scrambled 20 laps from the end of the race when Ambrose tapped the rear of Joey Logano’s car. That started a six-car crash that also involved Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick.
On the race’s ninth lap, a major crash was sparked when Paul Menard and David Ragan made contact in a pack of traffic. Menard slid in front of the group, and several drivers, including Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton and Gordon were drawn into the wreck.
“It was a hell of a wreck,” Menard said. “You just hate to tear up race cars like that. … This is pretty damn chaotic.”
Despite several major incidents and only 10 of the 25 cars being on the lead lap at the finish, most drivers praised the return of pack racing.
“It’s better this way,” Ambrose said. “I mean, it’s much better racing. We’re more in control, even though it doesn’t look like it. We’re controlling our own destiny out there. … You’re going to push a car [in the tandem draft] to the end, but we just have to manage the temperatures now. I think NASCAR has done a great job of allowing the drivers to get back to racing.”
For 82 laps (including seven laps of “overtime”), 25 Sprint Cup drivers put on a wild show Saturday night in the Budweiser Shootout, illustrating that NASCAR’s off-season attempts to improve racing at its two restrictor-plate tracks worked well.
The race produced the closest finish in the 34-year history of the Shootout, the first on-track competition of the new season. Kyle Busch, who saved his car spectacularly during a pair of incidents late in the race, passed Tony Stewart in the homestretch to win by .01 of a second.
NASCAR brought new rules to the start of the new season, hoping to limit the impact of tandem drafting at Daytona. The changes produced much more “pack” drafting, but the crowded traffic and apparent instability of the cars produced several major accidents.
Busch survived all of them, then outran Stewart in the shadow of the checkered flag to score his first victory in the non-points race.
Rolling home third was Richard Petty Motorsports Ford driver Marcos Ambrose, one of three Blue Oval drivers in the top 10. Greg Biffle, who led 17 laps, finished sixth, and Carl Edwards was ninth.
Ambrose, racing in the Shootout for the first time, led the race’s next-to-last lap as the drivers rolled through a green-white-checkered restart. But Stewart and Busch drafted past Ambrose and Brad Keselowski to move into first and second on the final lap.
“I’m out there driving the Stanley car with one lap to go thinking I’m going to win the race, and I get freight-trained,” Ambrose said. “There’s a lot to learn out there.”
Ambrose called the finish “a blur. … There are people you like to run with, and you try to find them before the end, but it was thinned out a lot by the end of the race. I looked around, and there were probably about 10 cars left that could run, so we missed a lot out there – a lot of incidents and accidents.”
Indeed, the race was replete with big accidents, and those who were able to roll home in the top five displayed some of the evening’s most alert driving, along with a little luck.
“It was a crazy race, that’s for sure,” Ambrose said. “I saw pretty much every spin, crash. I was either in it or around it or just dodged it. I’m just really proud to run fast tonight.
“We’ve got a lot of steam under the hood this week, which is great. The Ford department has done a wonderful job with the engines.”
The race was pushed into overtime by a sensational crash featuring a flipping Jeff Gordon with two laps to go in regulation.
Gunning for positions, Gordon tapped Kyle Busch, and the impact sent Gordon sliding into the outside wall. He was hit by teammate Jimmie Johnson, and Gordon’s car turned on its side and then went into a series of rolls before landing on its roof.
He climbed from the car and was not injured.
Busch made another fine save after being hit by Gordon.
The ensuing green-white-checkered started with Stewart in front. Ambrose, Keselowski and Ryan Newman drafted past Stewart at the start of the two-lap chase, but Stewart roared back with drafting help from Kyle Busch.
After pushing Stewart to the lead, Busch whipped around Stewart on the outside coming to the checkered flag and won the race by inches – .01 of a second – despite driving a Toyota damaged by several incidents.
The front pack was scrambled 20 laps from the end of the race when Ambrose tapped the rear of Joey Logano’s car. That started a six-car crash that also involved Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick.
On the race’s ninth lap, a major crash was sparked when Paul Menard and David Ragan made contact in a pack of traffic. Menard slid in front of the group, and several drivers, including Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton and Gordon were drawn into the wreck.
“It was a hell of a wreck,” Menard said. “You just hate to tear up race cars like that. … This is pretty damn chaotic.”
Despite several major incidents and only 10 of the 25 cars being on the lead lap at the finish, most drivers praised the return of pack racing.
“It’s better this way,” Ambrose said. “I mean, it’s much better racing. We’re more in control, even though it doesn’t look like it. We’re controlling our own destiny out there. … You’re going to push a car [in the tandem draft] to the end, but we just have to manage the temperatures now. I think NASCAR has done a great job of allowing the drivers to get back to racing.”
