Roush Fenway Ford team-mates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle controlled the final 100 miles of this year’s Daytona 500 on Monday night after a day and a half of rain delays.
Kenseth, Biffle and team-mate Carl Edwards enjoyed the strongest cars at Daytona this year and Kenseth and Biffle worked together over the final few restarts with Kenseth setting the pace all the way as he scored his second Daytona 500 victory. Kenseth last won the Daytona 500 in 2009 and was NASCAR’s Sprint Cup champion in 2003.
“We had a lot of problems today but we also had a really fast car,” Kenseth said. “We had an engine spewing water and we had a little bit of a fuel problem. We lost fuel pressure and we lost our radios too. I could talk but they couldn’t hear me. But what a good race. I really have to thank Greg Biffle. He did a great job working with me and we both had really fast rockets. It just ended up whoever was in front was going to win. Greg pushed me and we got going so fast nobody could catch us.”
Kenseth’s team-mate Biffle was passed on the final sprint off the last turn to the chequered flag by Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished second with Biffle taking third and Denny Hamlin finishing fourth. Pole winner Edwards survived a couple of incidents, including one near the end which put him to the tail of the leaders for the final restart and he did well to come home eighth.
The 500 has been cut short by rain four times, but this was the first time in 54 years that the race was postponed and run a day late. Usually, the weather in Daytona in February is sunny and warm, known as ‘Bill France weather’, but not so this year. Constant drizzle on Sunday gave way to a few cloudbursts and a fresh shower just after 5 o’clock meant the soaked track and drenched grass infield were out of business for the rest of the afternoon and night.
That evening NASCAR announced the race would start at noon on Monday but more rain overnight and persistent showers on Monday morning resulted in NASCAR putting the start back to 7pm. The 500 would run under the Speedway’s lights and be televised live in prime time.
The race started badly when Elliott Sadler clouted Jimmie Johnson in the tail, initiating a multi-car accident that took out five-time champion Johnson. Accidents and incidents continued throughout the race with second-level stars Denny Hamlin, Kenseth, Biffle and Jeff Burton doing most of the leading before an extraordinary collision occurred just before the 400-mile mark.
While running under the yellow, with jet dryers working on the track, Juan Pablo Montoya suffered a transmission failure as he approached the jet dryer. Suddenly his car slewed to the right and shot up the track, clouting the jet drier squarely. Both Montoya’s car and the jet dryer burst into flames and while Juan Pablo was quickly able to scramble out of his comprehensively wrecked car it took a few minutes to put out the fire emanating from 200 gallons of burning jet fuel.
The race was red-flagged while the incinerated jet dryer was removed and track workers started sweeping and cleaning the burnt strip of track. The red flag lasted for over two hours and the race was restarted just before midnight, finishing a little after 1 am.
Kenseth’s win was the 300th for the Roush Fenway team in NASCAR’s top three divisions. Roush Fenway have scored 126 wins in the first division Sprint Cup series, 124 in the second division Nationwide series and 50 wins in the third division Truck series.
That was a very anti-climatic finish to an exciting if somewhat amateurish weekend of racing overall. I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories but it definitely looked to me like Biffle dragged the brakes to ensure a Roush win with Kenseth instead of bringing Jr with him to the front and risk making it a three way fight for the lead.
Why he would do this? Well, he’s had a terrible last couple of seasons at Roush and with promising young hopefuls like Stenhouse and Bayne waiting in the wings, he needs to butter up Roush as much as possible to keep his ride and this would have been a nice gift. After seeing what Kyle did in the Shootout, there’s no way I can believe it can be that hard to get a run on the leading car as Biffle made it look.
biffle is a team player for sure. what crap it is that these guys can’t drive ten laps at the end without wrecking each other… or the first two for that matter.
“we waited 36 hours to start this thing and these guys wreck each other on the first lap” Kyle Bush
Kyle is the best
maybe the rule for yellows should include a speed limit for drivers needing to catch up to the field. jp was not completely at fault – something obviously broke – but the sense in driving a known broken car at speed to catch up to the field maybe should be questioned…. maybe yellow periods should last until the stragglers and pit visitors catch up the field at a reasonable safe speed.
sure would like to see Kyle Busch in F1. he’d shake it up good!
I thought Biffle did the sensible thing. Personally i couldn’t see the sense in him towing Dale Jr up to Kenseth just to watch him draft past the pair of them.
Thank God JPM’s ok; that he bounced back across the track – and not got wedged into the truck. Goes to prove that however safe you can make racing, freak incidents will always happen. That’s spot on about yellows and safety cars Dave, and it should apply to every series there is.Then the “catch up” laps could be added on, and with the addition that (barring exceptional circumstances), marshals shouldn’t be allowed on track until all cars are picked up, either. The Canadian GP last year, was a little troubling…
I did attend the 48 hours of Daytona 500, my first top tier NASCAR race live.
Still don’t feel like I got the real thing, the situation was trying in the extreme Sunday. Too little verbal communication from NASCAR to attendee’s, confusion and ire resulting.
Saw Brian France leaving the track, looking like the weight of the world on him, a bit glazed over.
NASCAR have a social media series sponsor, but also an ample P.A system, at the speedway, should’ve provided more updates.
Monday night race under the light’s was the correct call, and NASCAR was rewarded with a stupendous crowd for the re-do.
Good spectacle all right, and pack racing is impressive, until a cock up. Collateral issues are right now, and contagious.
Montoya one lucky man, so are the track vehicle workers. That race car was alarmingly destroyed, all the “what if’s” spoken about by contributors here, potentially dire.
Kenseth had the best horse, clearly so, making up mileage after early cooling issues. Hamlin, Biffle, Burton, Smith all showing pump too, none as strong tho’.
When Earnhardt contends it invigorates electricity in the crowd. His effort thwarted by position, the wrong surrounding cast for last lap heroics, a car not quite equal.
Saw one chap in a Danica T-shirt, enough stick from the hoi polloi he may not do that again !
Might do it again, try for a traditionally scheduled version.
I’d advise staying near, or in Tampa. Unless you really need theme parks.
Orlando’s a toll ridden gong show, worst drivers I’ve ever seen.
If you like motor racing, you’ll like this. Recommendable.