Four wrecked drivers see the wild Daytona 500 reaching the finish line in very different ways
DAYTONA Beach, Florida — Kyle Busch walk out of the medical center at Daytona International Speedway and ask a question.
“Winner?” he say. “I don’t even know who got lucky into it.”
He said Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. won the Daytona 500.
“There you have it,” Busch said.
[Ricky Stenhouse Jr. an unlikely winner in unpredictable and historic Daytona 500]
That’s the feeling of many drivers who don’t win the sport’s biggest race. Some people may not be as sour as Busch because Stenhouse has a bunch of friends on the driving team.
But for Busch and Austin Dillonit was a nasty end to a week when they had great cars and were hoping to put Richard Childress Racing in the winning lane.
Highlights of Daytona 500 2023
Two laps to go, a collision with Austin Dillon caused injury time. In stoppage time, another collision helped Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Daytona 500.
Perhaps only two motorists were not so disappointed despite seeing their day end in a crash. Jimmie JohnsonThe seven-time Cup champion is returning to the Cup for several races after two seasons in IndyXefeel satisfied with their experience despite being ranked 31st.
Johnson said: “I don’t know what happened in the lane in front of me, but before I knew it, I saw the side of a 24-seater and I knew we were going to be in big trouble. “I almost got over it.
“All in all, just a fun day. It was great to get some rep and be back in the group, running in the top 5 and top 10. I had a great time.”
And Travis Pastranaaction sports star, managed to take a lead one lap and finish in 11th despite some injuries in the final round.
Pastrana said: “When I failed one lap and almost missed two laps, I was very upset. “It makes me feel that we’re not going to hit our inclusion goal.
“From there to my end, when my team doesn’t give up on me, that’s great.”
Pastrana said he won’t be in another Cup race, that he’s not a pavement and oval racer good enough to do it consistently and realize the dedication it will take. need.
“We were 14th at the Daytona 500,” Pastrana said. “Great.”
Pastrana was later informed that he was 11th.
“Even better,” Pastrana said with a smile.
Travis Pastrana on his Daytona 500 run
Travis Pastrana summarized his thoughts on the Daytona 500 race. He is pleased with his results and says he has no plans to race in the Cup again.
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The race ended a frantic week for Pastrana, who raced a modified car on dirt roads (and won), raced in Friday’s NASCAR truck race and made his Cup debut in the race. the sport’s biggest event.
Pastrana said: “I’m so excited right now, I can sleep next week. “I was completely exhausted mentally and physically.”
Busch probably wished he could go to sleep for a long time after the disappointing ending.
Busch, currently 0-18 in the Daytona 500, is leading the race in Round 200, a scheduled finish. But he failed to survive the overtime restart and came in 19th after crashing in the last reboot.
Entering stoppage time, Busch had no feeling he was going to win the race.
“I don’t think you’ve ever been confident,” he said.
Busch and Dillon were leading 1-2 when caution appeared with less than two laps left. Dillon reboots next to Busch and their plan is to team up with fellow Chevy driver William Byron stay out.
Dillon was behind Busch to set up a group of Chevys ahead on the inner line. But instead of using that to their advantage, they were thrown back into disarray shortly after the reboot, and Dillon would soon be spinning.
“Looks like it’s working, but we’re too far apart [Turn] 2, and I was trying to step back to approach them and when they hit me, I got really nervous,” Busch said.
“Then Austin checked and the accordion happened and people ran over people.”
Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 winner, said he should have been in the other lane.
“Maybe I should have been a little more selfish at the time,” Dillon said. “I just wish we had tried to block both lanes. … Too bad you were so close to winning a second Daytona 500 and your teammate was really close to getting his first win.
“We’ll take it and move on. Honestly, we did it with the cars that weren’t the fastest. It was just execution and we didn’t finish the final part.”
Austin Dillon on his wreck at Daytona 500
Austin Dillon gives his thoughts on how he and teammate Kyle Busch were destroyed at the end of the Daytona 500.
Dillon felt a strong repulsion from Brad Keselowski caused the shipwreck.
“That’s what he does,” Dillon said. “His car is good enough that he can just drive past whoever he needs to and push them out of the way or wreck them. … He’s just doing everything he can to get back there.
“They had the car to beat, and we overtook him and put him in a tough situation.”
Dillon was eventually wrecked on the following lap and then Busch was wrecked on the final lap of the race.
“I think this is the first time I’ve led Round 200,” Busch said. “I wish it was the 1998 rule [with no overtime]. Only par for the course. Used to it.
“I come here every year just to find out when and where I’m going to crash and what round I’ll be out of the care center.”
Think big
The biggest disappointment of the weekend was that none of the three national series races at Daytona ended in green.
The truck race was shortened because of the dense fog. Then the accident in the last round of Xfinity and Cup races lead NASCAR to be cautious.
Though unfortunately, both of those crashes involved severe impacts where NASCAR needed to slow down to give drivers still in the convoy more time to react. And NASCAR is needed to initiate a safe device move.
Some will say on the last lap that NASCAR should let the drivers get back to the line. But if safety is NASCAR’s top priority, as it is often said, this is a situation where NASCAR needs to continue to practice what it preaches and exercise caution when necessary on the final lap.
Social focus
Statistics of the day
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. failed to finish in the top 5 in his previous 11 Daytona 500 starts.
They Said It
“Unbelievable.” —Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsport, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News- Journal. Follow him on Twitter @reedsand sign up FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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