Editors Note: Here’s another new weekly feature ‘Winners and Losers’ at Fan4Racing Blog and Radio from our newest writer, Owen Stewart.
The 62nd installment of the Daytona 500 was, well, unique. First, there was the rain delay and subsequent postponement after just 20 laps. Then, there was the 19-car crash with 17 laps to go that knocked out some of the race’s top contenders. Finally, there was the second-closest finish in race history, with Denny Hamlin edging Ryan Blaney by just 0.014 seconds to pick up his second straight 500 win and third in his last five years. Unfortunately, Ryan Newman’s horrifying crash at the finish line that nearly caused NASCAR’s first driver fatality in 19 years overshadows all the rest. The race, particularly the last few hundred feet, brought about some talk and debates that the sport hasn’t had to deal with in nearly two decades. Here is the first edition of winners and losers from the week’s race.
Winner: Conservative Strategy
For all of the questioning (from both the commentators and Kyle Busch himself) of the Joe Gibbs Racing strategy in Stage 1, it sure seemed to work out pretty well for Denny Hamlin. All four JGR teammates, as well as fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell, elected to drop back behind the lead draft and ride at half throttle for the entirety of the first stage. Stewart-Haas Racing then did the same in Stage 2. Hamlin ended up winning the race, and SHR teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer finished fifth and sixth respectively. It obviously wasn’t foolproof, as Hamlin was the only JGR car to finish in the top-ten, but hanging out in the back early on is becoming an increasingly feasible strategy.
Loser: JTG Daugherty Racing
Speedweeks as a whole is probably a success for JTG Daugherty Racing. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the pole for the 500 and ran near the front of his Duel for the majority of the race, as well as picking up points in both race stages. Ryan Preece was in contention for a top-five finish late at Daytona as well. Unfortunately for the team, there is Stenhouse’s black-flag for passing below the yellow line and subsequently wrecking on his way to pit road, finishing a disappointing 20th. Also, there’s Preece with two laps to go, battling for fourth with Ross Chastain. All in all, the team should be proud of their performance on the weekend, but the race will go down as a huge opportunity missed.
Winner: Underdogs
Daytona always opens up opportunities for drivers who typically run near the back of the field to change their fortunes. In what is supposedly his last race, David Ragan came home fourth representing Rick Ware Racing. Brendan Gaughan finished seventh in his last Daytona 500, and Corey LaJoie came home eighth. Justin Haley and Brennan Poole also both finished in the top-20, and John Hunter Nemechek was the highest finishing rookie, crossing the line in eleventh.
Loser: Martin Truex Jr.
Even with Erik Jones taking damage from an incident with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch blowing his engine with a few laps left, Truex almost certainly had the worst day among his Joe Gibbs Racing counterparts. Like his teammates, his early ride at the back, sacrificing track position had the intention of saving fuel and avoiding incidents, but when it came time to take advantage of the strategy, Truex hit a stroke of bad luck. While on pit road, Truex hit a gas can that was yanked out of Chase Elliott’s pit box, forcing him to pit again to check for damage and putting him in the back of the pack again, and even so, he still found the wreck on lap 183. Not the ideal start to the season for a driver with a new crew chief.
Winner: Chris Buescher
Buescher came into the 2020 season as one of the Cup Series’ biggest unknowns. He drove a JTG Daugherty car into the top-20 in the standings in 2019 and reunited with Roush-Fenway in the offseason to drive the No. 17 car. His season is off to a great start, as he rolled to a third-place finish in the 500, running in the top-five for the majority of the home stretch. He’s going to be a driver to watch over the next few races, mainly to determine whether or not his car has non-superspeedway speed, but he’s always been a driver who gets the most out of his equipment.
Loser: Hendrick Motorsports
As usual, Hendrick put up a great qualifying effort at Daytona, with Alex Bowman starting on the front row and William Byron winning his Duel. Unfortunately, the race itself wasn’t nearly as kind. There’s Byron’s spin by Ricky Stenhouse near the end of Stage 1, finishing dead last. Then, Jimmie Johnson and Bowman both were in the wreck on lap 183, sustaining major damage. Finally, Chase Elliott wrecked on the final lap, finishing outside of the top-15. Elliott was able to win stage one, but that’s about the only positive they can get from the race.
Winner: NASCAR
Everything else aside, the fact that Ryan Newman is alive is a huge victory for the sport. Twenty, ten, maybe even five years ago, Newman would have been killed instantly when his car was hit on the driver’s side by Corey LaJoie. In the present, there’s a good chance Newman will only miss a single race before being able to return. The reason for that is mostly attributed to safety advances since Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, as well as another Newman superspeedway flip in 2009, which led to prompting increased roof protection. In today’s technological age, explaining a driver’s death would have been nearly impossible.
Loser: Also NASCAR
Newman’s crash, although the medical prognosis is improving, was just the icing on the cake for what was a somewhat messy weekend for NASCAR. The drivers taking the green flag almost an hour past the scheduled start time on Sunday and dragging out the pre-race ceremony indicates a lack of insight into typical weather patterns and the result ending in postponing to Monday. Also, if NASCAR had thrown the caution when Chase Elliott wrecked about 100 feet past the white flag, Newman’s wreck would never have happened. Of course, fans (including me) would have gone crazy if that happened, but choosing a caution-shortened race over a horrific accident is a no-brainer. Finally, there had to be some way to communicate the severity of the situation to Denny Hamlin before he started celebrating. It was pretty obvious in real-time on television how bad that wreck was. Somebody should have told him something prior to him unhooking his radio.