Events of the Month

Rarely does the Daytona 500 provide much in the way of predictions about the outcome of NASCAR’s 36-round Sprint Cup championship. Run with power-sapping `restrictor plates’, which keep the cars jammed together in a giant slipstreaming pack, the 500 is more a lottery than a motor race. Typically, there are more than a few multi-car accidents which inevitably eliminate some of the favourites and in many ways Daytona is anybody’s race.

Indeed this year’s 500 saw a handful of top contenders – Tony Stewart, Kevin this year’s 500 saw a handful of top contenders — Tonytewart, Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne among them — eliminated or delayed by accidents. As the race wore on last year’s winner Matt Kenseth and team-mate Kyle Busch looked good only to drop out after 400 miles with mechanical failures. In the closing stages the race was dominated by Jimmie Johnson who led the final 10 laps and swept home unchallenged. In his 400th start in NASCAR’s premier division Johnson scored his second Daytona 500 win (his first came in 2006) and the 61st Sprint Cup victory of his career.

Five-time champion Johnson has been out of luck at Daytona in recent years and he was delighted not only to survive this year’s 500 but to lead team-mate Dale Earnhardt Jr across the line in a one-two sweep for Hendrick Motorsports. “As we all know, ‘plate’ racing has been tough on us for the last few years,” Johnson remarked. “So I’m happy to get through it all. We just had a strong race car. I feel like the speed we had in our car allowed me to really have control of the race there at the end. I felt like I was sitting on something all day and was just ready to have some fun when it counted, and I did.”

Inevitably, Johnson’s performance at Daytona sparked talk about his chances of winning a sixth NASCAR championship this year. If the 37-year-old Californian is able to pull it off he will put himself in the rare position of challenging NASCAR’s record of seven championships shared by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. “I was really happy today to see our cars be able to run one-two,” Johnson said. “It’s a great feeling. It gives you a lot of momentum to start the year. Before the season started we felt good about the 500, but we’re also really excited for everything after this race. I think it’s going to be a strong year for us.”

The big story ahead of the race was Danica Patrick’s historic pole position, the former IndyCar racer becoming the first women to achieve the feat in stock car racing’s biggest event. She ran competitively in the race and finished a creditable eighth.

Daytona was the first race for NASCAR’s new ‘Generation 6’ car which permits the three competing manufacturers — Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota — more individual brand identity than the previous car, known as the ‘Car of Tomorrow’, which was an identical spec car. It’s hoped that the new car will bring back some of NASCAR’s lost fans of recent years, but the message from Daytona was mixed. Crowds were down all week for qualifying and support races and there were plenty of empty seats for the 500 itself, although TV ratings were up by 30 per cent over last year. Gordon Kirby