Matt Kenseth Wins the Daytona 500
Matt Kenseth Wins the Daytona 500
Matt Kenseth dodged the biggest wreck of the day to become the winner of the 51st running of the Daytona 500.
We have a lot of note to get through so let’s start at the top with the green flag.
Lap 8 and Aric Almirola brings our the fist caution of the day on lap 8 when Jamie McMurry gets out of line and Almirola gives him room.
Then Almirola gets tapped from behind and spins.
The “competition caution” comes out to check tires and tweak on the car on lap 26.
Travis Kvapil hit the wall on lap 55 bringing out the third caution of the day. During the caution, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was just leading the race missed his turn into his pit box and went a lap down.
During the caution a commercial for AMP Energy Drink’s website gave a preview of their film of Dale Earnhardt Jr. go cat racing friends. Good cross promotion.
Scott Speed gets loose and Joey Logano moves to avoid Speed
and right into nose of Greg Biffle turning Logano around,
across the track and a hard hit into the inside barrier. Joey Logano walked away uninjured.
During the caution, FOX ran an extended commercial I mean preview for the movie Watchmen. I’m not going to gripe about the interruption but I thought the preview was a little to violent for me. It is rated R. I think they need to be a little more sensitive about violence in the movie previews.
We are now halfway and Kyle Busch is in the lead with rain on the way.
Mechanical gremlins begin to appear on lap 84 as Jeff Gordon’s camber setting results in a tire that had severe ware. Gordon pits as does San Hornish Jr. whose car is overheating.
Two laps later the caution comes out as David Stremme’s right rear tire blows as he comes onto pit road.
The rain is getting closer and only 77 laps remain
when all H-E-double hockey sticks break loose.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets a run on Brian Vickers. Vickers blocks and Earnhardt goes below the yellow line.
Instead of getting back into line, Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns Brian Vickers
right into the rest of the field wrecking eight cars and taking out several of the best performers of the race including
Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Scott Speed, Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards.
The question now is, would NASCAR penalize Dale Earnhardt Jr. five laps for hard driving just like the day before when they penalized Jason Leffler during the Nationwide Series race.
“Apparently he wanted a caution really bad,” said Brian Vickers to FOX’s Matt Yokum when asked what happened.
Lets take another look at the wreck.
Notice where Matt Kenseth is. He came pretty close to being wrecked.
During the caution rain drops fell as a patch of rain moved just north of Daytona International Raceway.
Green flag and everyone is racing hard.
Caution again with 63 laps to go when Jeff Burton gets into the wall
and Paul Menard is the victim.
Green flag again with 58 laps to go. Three laps later Aric Almirola goes on an agricultural excursion when he is hit from behind by Sam Hornish Jr.
The caution was extended by rain that began to surround the track. Matt Kenseth sat in this car hoping that the rain would continue.
During the rain delay in an interview with FOX’s Dick Bergeron, Dale Earnhardt Jr. blamed Brian Vickers for causing the major pileup saying that wrecked eight cars. Dale Earnhardt Jr. went onto say he was sorry that all the cars were wrecked but he wasn’t sorry that Brian Vickers got wrecked. During the same interview he complained about the penalty that NASCAR gave him for a pitstop that was outside his pit box (his tires were on the white line). For just a moment, it appeared that Earnhardt had a god complex and nothing he could do was wrong. That can probably be chalked up to adrenaline after hopping out of the car.
After looking at radar,
NASCAR decided to call the race
and declared Matt Kenseth the winner. It was the first Daytona 500 win for Matt Kenseth and Jack Roush.
Here is where the Open Wheelers finished in the Daytona 500:
1. (Matt Kenseth)
3. A.J. Allmendinger
8. Tony Stewart
13. Jeff Gordon
14. Juan Montoya
15. Casey Mears
18. Carl Edwards
19. John Andretti
29. Kasey Kahne
32. Sam Hornish Jr
34. Robby Gordon
35. Scott Speed
36. Ryan Newman
If you missed the Daytona 500, it is slated to reair on Speed on Thursday at 12pm eastern.
Just a quick personal note, thanks for visiting Open Wheeler. We had viewers from all of the United States and Canada today. We are planning to update almost every day. Thanks again for visiting and remember, May is not that far away.
Ideas, thoughts, questions? Drop me a line at bjohnson_292@comcast.net.
Images appearing in this blog courtesy of FOX, The National Weather Service, Speed and NASCAR Images.
Matt Kenseth dodged the biggest wreck of the day to become the winner of the 51st running of the Daytona 500.
We have a lot of note to get through so let’s start at the top with the green flag.
Lap 8 and Aric Almirola brings our the fist caution of the day on lap 8 when Jamie McMurry gets out of line and Almirola gives him room.
Then Almirola gets tapped from behind and spins.
The “competition caution” comes out to check tires and tweak on the car on lap 26.
Travis Kvapil hit the wall on lap 55 bringing out the third caution of the day. During the caution, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was just leading the race missed his turn into his pit box and went a lap down.
During the caution a commercial for AMP Energy Drink’s website gave a preview of their film of Dale Earnhardt Jr. go cat racing friends. Good cross promotion.
Scott Speed gets loose and Joey Logano moves to avoid Speed
and right into nose of Greg Biffle turning Logano around,
across the track and a hard hit into the inside barrier. Joey Logano walked away uninjured.
During the caution, FOX ran an extended commercial I mean preview for the movie Watchmen. I’m not going to gripe about the interruption but I thought the preview was a little to violent for me. It is rated R. I think they need to be a little more sensitive about violence in the movie previews.
We are now halfway and Kyle Busch is in the lead with rain on the way.
Mechanical gremlins begin to appear on lap 84 as Jeff Gordon’s camber setting results in a tire that had severe ware. Gordon pits as does San Hornish Jr. whose car is overheating.
Two laps later the caution comes out as David Stremme’s right rear tire blows as he comes onto pit road.
The rain is getting closer and only 77 laps remain
when all H-E-double hockey sticks break loose.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets a run on Brian Vickers. Vickers blocks and Earnhardt goes below the yellow line.
Instead of getting back into line, Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns Brian Vickers
right into the rest of the field wrecking eight cars and taking out several of the best performers of the race including
Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Scott Speed, Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards.
The question now is, would NASCAR penalize Dale Earnhardt Jr. five laps for hard driving just like the day before when they penalized Jason Leffler during the Nationwide Series race.
“Apparently he wanted a caution really bad,” said Brian Vickers to FOX’s Matt Yokum when asked what happened.
Lets take another look at the wreck.
Notice where Matt Kenseth is. He came pretty close to being wrecked.
During the caution rain drops fell as a patch of rain moved just north of Daytona International Raceway.
Green flag and everyone is racing hard.
Caution again with 63 laps to go when Jeff Burton gets into the wall
and Paul Menard is the victim.
Green flag again with 58 laps to go. Three laps later Aric Almirola goes on an agricultural excursion when he is hit from behind by Sam Hornish Jr.
The caution was extended by rain that began to surround the track. Matt Kenseth sat in this car hoping that the rain would continue.
During the rain delay in an interview with FOX’s Dick Bergeron, Dale Earnhardt Jr. blamed Brian Vickers for causing the major pileup saying that wrecked eight cars. Dale Earnhardt Jr. went onto say he was sorry that all the cars were wrecked but he wasn’t sorry that Brian Vickers got wrecked. During the same interview he complained about the penalty that NASCAR gave him for a pitstop that was outside his pit box (his tires were on the white line). For just a moment, it appeared that Earnhardt had a god complex and nothing he could do was wrong. That can probably be chalked up to adrenaline after hopping out of the car.
After looking at radar,
NASCAR decided to call the race
and declared Matt Kenseth the winner. It was the first Daytona 500 win for Matt Kenseth and Jack Roush.
Here is where the Open Wheelers finished in the Daytona 500:
1. (Matt Kenseth)
3. A.J. Allmendinger
8. Tony Stewart
13. Jeff Gordon
14. Juan Montoya
15. Casey Mears
18. Carl Edwards
19. John Andretti
29. Kasey Kahne
32. Sam Hornish Jr
34. Robby Gordon
35. Scott Speed
36. Ryan Newman
If you missed the Daytona 500, it is slated to reair on Speed on Thursday at 12pm eastern.
Just a quick personal note, thanks for visiting Open Wheeler. We had viewers from all of the United States and Canada today. We are planning to update almost every day. Thanks again for visiting and remember, May is not that far away.
Ideas, thoughts, questions? Drop me a line at bjohnson_292@comcast.net.
Images appearing in this blog courtesy of FOX, The National Weather Service, Speed and NASCAR Images.
posted by Blake Johnson at 5:53 PM
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