The Nationwide and Sprint Cup series went to Daytona for some Fourth of July weekend racing. It turned out to be yet another wild race weekend to end the first half of the Cup season.
Back on Tuesday, Tropical Storm Arthur, later a hurricane, formed off Florida's east coast, and the Daytona Beach area was under a tropical storm warning. Fortunately, Arthur moved away from the area by early Wednesday morning, so there was no threat from that anymore. This is when I thought the weekend would go smoothly. I had no idea how wrong I would be.
First, the second Cup practice on Thursday was postponed due to rain, but then it rained again, and the practice session was canceled. Then on Friday, a sudden rain shower during the first round of Nationwide knockout qualifying caught everyone off guard, and caused a crash coming off turn 2 onto the backstretch, forcing several teams to break out their backup cars. The rain also canceled the other two rounds, giving Dakoda Armstrong the pole, but the track was dried in time for Cup qualifying.
Since it was the first time the Cup series did knockout qualifying at Daytona, the first round saw some poor driving. Then another round of rain came, which forced the cancellation of the other two rounds and handed the pole to David Gilliland. Joining him in second through fourth were Reed Sorenson, Landon Cassill and Bobby Labonte, which surprised many fans including myself.
It was still raining when the Nationwide race was supposed to start at 7:30. The Air Titans dried the track and the race finally started, about 90 minutes late. The first half went caution-free, and then there were three cautions, the last of which was for a crash caused by Chase Elliott running out of fuel on a restart, and set up a green-white-checkered finish. On the final lap, Cup driver Kasey Kahne caught up to JR Motorsports teammate and February race winner Regan Smith, beating him by 0.021 seconds to steal the win and deny him a season sweep of Daytona. The final lap was the only lap Kahne led during the entire race.
Then last night, it was time for the Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup race. The story during the day was if Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. could pull off the Daytona sweep. But then, it rained again. I thought the rain was done by then and I was frustrated when I learned it wasn't. Just after 9:00, after more than an hour of waiting, NASCAR postponed the race until 11:00 this morning. This marked the first time the summer 400-mile race at Daytona would be held during the day since 1997.
So the drivers got back in their cars this morning to try it again. The race didn't get started until about 11:20. Then a caution came out after a few laps for rain, and then the red flag was thrown briefly. Once they got back racing, it didn't take long for a big crash to happen on the frontstretch. Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and more drivers were involved. The crash was cleaned up and after a couple of debris cautions, another huge crash took place on the backstretch when Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano spun. The crash ended with Cole Whitt tapping Kyle Busch, causing Busch to flip on his roof. Others involved included Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman. When all was said and done, more than 30 cars had been involved in the two crashes.
On lap 110, a caution was thrown for rain with Aric Almirola leading. Three laps later another red flag was displayed. Soon, NASCAR called the race official, giving Almirola his first Cup win and the first win for Richard Petty's #43 car since 1999. It also came on the 30th anniversary of The King's 200th and final win in the same race.
This race weekend at Daytona will be talked about among NASCAR fans for a long time. It may have even been more memorable than Speedweeks earlier this year.
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