Kurt Busch Wins His First Ever Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway
- Feb 28, 2017
“To have the mirror fall off, and it broke on the left hinge, and so the right hinge was still mounted to the upper roll cage. I took my right arm and tried to fix it. Now the mirror is going vertical,” Busch said regarding the quality of his car in the closing minutes. “I couldn't get enough angle in it to see behind me. I could see nobody back there. I said, ‘What would my dad do? What would he teach me to do as a young racer?’” Busch led the 200-lap race only once, the 200th and the final lap to take the checkered flag. He also won a much-needed 56 points to start the season. “Daytona's always about survival. As I gave Tony Gibson a high five before we started the race, I said, ‘It's 90% protect the car, 10% go for aggression, race hard, and execute at the end.’ The nose was clean and the tail was clean,” Busch said. “Yeah, the sides were a bit wrinkled up. You just kind of let the rough edges drag and you go for it. Usually there's not a perfect car anymore. I just let the care go to the side when it comes to protect the car, making sure it doesn't have too much damage, because you always want a perfect car to have the most speed at the end.” Busch’s brother, Kyle Busch, won the first stage of the race before getting into an accident, and was forced to finish the race early. Busch crashed into turn 3 taking out three other drivers, Erik Jones, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the process.
Ryan Blaney finished in second place, 0.288 of a second behind Busch after coming all the way from behind the 11-car battle with two laps to go and a lead before losing it. Blaney led once throughout the race, for the last two laps. “A good showing for us. It was a good way to start off the year. Stinks to be so close. But I think that's good momentum for our team, to be good at the beginning of the day, get some damage and be able to rally for a good finish,” Blaney said. AJ Allmendinger finished the race in third place and led once for two laps. “Just solid. We didn't have the best speed outright since we've been here. We put a great effort. The Duels we got a good finish. Unfortunately had the penalty. To come out with a top-five finish, I think this is the first time since I've been with the 47 team we've raced our primary car at the 500. That's a start.” Allmendinger said. The winner of the second stage, Kevin Harvick, led for 50 of the 200-laps before wrecking his car on Lap 128. Harvick eventually finished in 22nd place and received 42 points. The new racing format that NASCAR has put together awards the winner of each stage with points. The winners of stages one and two both receive one point, while the winner of the race receives five playoff points.
"Saw a lot of great, hard racing. Everybody knows that every driver wants to win the Daytona 500. We saw drivers up on the wheel all day long, racing hard, and that's exactly what we expected from the format," NASCAR Vice President Steve O’Donnell said regarding the Daytona 500. Kurt Busch leads the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings with 56 and five playoff points. Ryan Blaney is in second place with 44 points. Joey Logano is in third place with 43 points. Kevin Harvick is fourth with 42 points and one playoff point. AJ Allmendinger is in fifth place with 39 points. The next race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds Of Honor Quicktrip 500. | ||||
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