Today’s race was pretty boring by the usual standards of Daytona. Way too much green flag single file racing, and no big-one. No, I don’t hope for a big wreck, but when you watch the same guy lead for so long, anything to stir things up is welcomed. The one thing that continually grabbed my attention was Kyle Busch. The guy was driving way too aggressively throughout the whole race. He was cutting off his teammate Denny Hamlin on lap 5, almost getting clipped every single time. That is insane behavior. He raced this way all day long. FOX’s coverage of the event was weak at best, but they even took notice and said he needed to calm down. I understand wanting to protect your position, but he was weaving back and forth cutting guys off way too much way too early. The last few laps, heck yes, go for it, but lap 12? Not so much. Sometimes, you need to just let the faster car go, it’s Daytona, and you can get back up there in a lap or two. There was really no need for him to drive that way.
Then, there was the just plain stupid move where he was leading, and Brian Vickers was 1 lap down. Brian was in line behind the leaders, and then for whatever reason, he went low, and almost started to pass Kyle. It wasn’t for position, it wouldn’t change anything for Kyle, but he swerved down, and cut him off. He almost wrecked himself trying to block a car not even on the lead lap. That was just dumb. It was crazy watching him narrowly miss accidents every lap. At first I thought, wow, he has some skill to drive that way and not wreck, but the more I watched the more I realized that he wasn’t doing it by skill. He was doing it by luck, and was aided by the skills of the drivers around him. I expect to see that kind of driving when it comes down the the wire, but through the whole race, it’s just careless. That’s why it isn’t skill, since anyone with skills would know when to calm down, and when to go for it. He can’t make that distinction and it was really scary watching him. I am totally baffled that he didn’t take out half the field today.
In happier news, congratulations to Ryan Newman and the #12 team for taking home that gold trophy tonight. Well played. Glad to see that Penske teamwork at the end to overtake the powerhouse Gibbs car of Tony Stewart, it was definitely a cool finish and one I didn’t expect at all! Congratulations.
Here are the points after the Daytona 500:
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND
1 Ryan Newman 190 Leader
2 Kurt Busch 175 -15
3 Tony Stewart 170 -20
Kyle Busch 170 -20
5 Reed Sorenson 160 -30
6 Kasey Kahne 151 -39
7 Elliott Sadler 150 -40
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 143 -47
9 Robby Gordon 142 -48
10 Greg Biffle 139 -51
11 Bobby Labonte 130 -60
12 Jeff Burton 129 -61
13 Brian Vickers 127 -63
14 Kevin Harvick 121 -69
15 Sam Hornish Jr. 118 -72
16 Denny Hamlin 117 -73
17 Dale Jarrett 115 -75
18 David Reutimann 109 -81
19 Carl Edwards 106 -84
20 Martin Truex Jr. 103 -87
21 Scott Riggs 100 -90
22 Paul Menard 97 -93
23 Clint Bowyer 96 -94
24 Jeremy Mayfield 94 -96
25 J.J. Yeley 88 -102
26 Jimmie Johnson 87 -103
27 Jamie McMurray 85 -105
28 Michael Waltrip 81 -109
29 David Gilliland 79 -111
30 Travis Kvapil 73 -117
31 Mark Martin 70 -120
32 Juan Pablo Montoya 67 -123
33 Dario Franchitti 64 -126
34 Matt Kenseth 63 -127
35 Kyle Petty 61 -129
36 Regan Smith 55 -135
37 Dave Blaney 54 -136
38 Casey Mears 52 -138
39 Jeff Gordon 51 -139
40 John Andretti 43 -147
41 Joe Nemechek 40 -150
42 David Ragan 37 -153
43 Kenny Wallace 34 -156
-Katie
Great points day for Brian. I just hope the next 4 races go just as well!
The flat tire absolutely killed Vickers. He had a car that could’ve won the race, and that loss of points could come back to haunt him again.
The Toyota Camry CoT is still a bit of an unknown quantity at the next four rounds and likely won’t be good as it was at Daytona.
Kyle Busch drove like that the entire weekend. He caused the big one in the truck race, and from lap 1 in both the Nationwide Series race and the Cup race he drove like he owned the track and if you were in his way you should move. Heaven forbid Brian pass him and get his lap back. Brian turned a pretty stressful day around and got a decent finish, and Robby Gordon’s penalty even put Brian in the top 12 in points.