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The Daytona 500 turns into an instant classic
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Location: Blogs Running Wide Open |
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| Posted by: Joe VanHoose |
2/20/2007 12:55 AM |
The 49th annual Daytona 500 read like a novel, but it started out as a snoozer. At the half way point, only four drivers had led the race and everyone was still running, quite spread-out to be exact.
Then there was a turning point. Actually, it was Tony Stewart getting turned by Kurt Busch while leading the race that turned this race upside down.
All of a sudden, the two dominant cars were out of the race, and everybody now thought they had a shot to win. And they proved that they would drive through each other to get in position to win the Great American Race.
Five cautions, all multi-car crashes, slowed the field in the final 50 laps, compared to just two cautions in the first 150. The wrecks trimmed the fat from the field a little more, and suddenly there were just a handful of contenders, a small cast of characters indeed, for the Daytona 500 win.
Then there was the Cinderella story. Mark Martin tried 20 years with Jack Roush to win the 500, but he never came very close. When he switched to a partial schedule and signed with Ginn Motorsports, no one seemed to figure out why.
But in the closing laps of the race, the reasoning all became clear. Martin found himself in the lead of the biggest race of his life. He saw the white flag with no one in front of him, and it looked as if he would see the checkered flag in first place.
The crowd of 170 thousand was on its feet, all cheering the old man on. Half way through the last lap, everyone was talking about how amazing it was going to be when Martin won the Daytona 500 in his 21st try.
And then, out of nowhere, the surprise that turned the Cinderella story upside down began to unfold. The surprise showed up in the form of a yellow Chevrolet, with Kevin Harvick riding the high line towards the front. He was fifth in turn 1, fourth in turn 2, and was four car lengths back of the leader half way down the backstretch.
But with all eyes on the Cinderella story, the shocker snuck to the outside and announced his presence with authority. The competing storylines and drivers ran side-by-side as they exited turn 4.
And like all suspenseful thrillers, the climax came at the very end. Harvick pulled ahead of Martin to win by two feet. The Cinderella story struck midnight, and the surprise no one saw coming had the last word.
Meanwhile, the world came crashing behind the two in a flurry of smoke and fire. Cars were spinning, striking the wall and each other, as Clint Bowyer flipped down the frontstretch, coming to rest in a flurry of fire and dust at the base of the finish line for the whole world to see.
There wasn’t much of a falling action. Harvick and his crew celebrated as the smoke became to clear. Martin stood on pit road, surrounded by reporters and humanity, looking as if he just let his biggest dream pass him by like a stranger in a crowd.
It was just another wild finish, one of the wildest in recent years, that left everyone standing, cheering or swearing, but definitely moved. Once again, the story of the Daytona 500 turned into a best-seller.
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