Joey Logano Takes Down Daytona 500
By: Pete MacDonald
Middletown, CT’s Joey Logano won the 57th Annual Daytona 500 under caution on Sunday over a hard-charging Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and all but punched his ticket to the 2015 NASCAR Chase to the Cup. The final caution occurred when Austin Dillon made contact with Pole-Sitter Jeff Gordon coming off of Turn 2 triggering a multi car incident as the field headed down the backstretch on a Green-White-Checkered after the 51 of Justin Allgaier blew up and crashed in the Tri-Oval with just three laps to go. It was the second win in the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing for Car Owner Roger Penske who won with Ryan Newman back in 2008.
“I can’t believe it, this is absolutely amazing, I was so nervous the whole race especially coming down for that green-white-checkered”, These (restrictor-plate) are our weakest race tracks, Clint (Bowyer) was the best pusher out there today, we knew what we had to do because we had a fast car.” said Logano who became the second youngest driver to win the Daytona 500 at age 24.
The ending under caution was not very popular with fans on social media, saying they could have thrown the yellow and tried to finish the race one more time, but after Saturday’s unfortunate incident involving Kyle Busch NASCAR is taking no chances at getting to drivers to help them out in case something is seriously wrong. “I was trying to back up to Junior to make a run, but just ran out of time, it seems like we’ve been here for a month, I’m ready to go to Atlanta now”, said second place finisher Kevin Harvick.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. who had unquestionably one of the most dominant cars during all of Speedweek’s came back to finish third behind Logano and Harvick after running mid-pack late in the going. “I made a bad decision, I wanted to get behind the 48 and got stuck in the middle with 19 to go, I should have stayed on the bottom, and we had maybe the best car here. I’m disappointed I let the guys down. We’re ready to get to Atlanta, this will be a fun year”, said Earnhardt after the race.
Another favorite to win Denny Hamlin who restarted next to Joey Logano on that final Green-White-Checkered restart and eventually ended up fourth offered this about the current state of restrictor plate racing “These guys have gotten so smart with the side draft, once the leaders get running 3-wide no one has an advantage because no one can break through it”.
Two other favorites to win The Great American Race had their days end early, those being Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart. Stewart crashed on Lap-42 and spent the next sixty-four laps in the garage area changing a bent spindle 
and putting a new nose on the car, “It’s part of it, it’s not what we had planned for today but it is what it is” said Stewart after exiting the race on Lap 72. Brad Keselowski lost an engine on lap 161 running 13th. “Motor just blew, that’s part of racing”, said Keselowski.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Xfinity, and Camping World truck series’ return to action next weekend in Atlanta. What did you think of the Daytona 500? Let us know on the RacersGuide.com Forums or I can be found on Twitter @PMacDonald51
Images Courtesy: NASCAR/Getty Images
