Ten years to the day after Dale Earnhardt died and Michael Waltrip won his first NASCAR then Winston Cup Series race, the Daytona 500... maybe this was exactly how things were supposed to end.
It was Austin Dillon driving the iconic No. 3 for Richard Childress Racing that led the field to the green under the full moon in Daytona. James Buescher led the first lap as much of the field fell into single file racing. The No. 99 of Chad McCumbee made his way to the garage on lap 25 as Justin Marks had one of his head pins come up, forcing him to hit pit road the following lap. Several trucks came down pit road for the first set of pit stops, with the majority electing for fuel only. Buescher led the leaders down pit road on lap 31. Donnie Neunberger was penalized for being too fast exiting pit road during the set of stops. Joey Coulter in the No. 22 RCR machine blew a right front tire and brought out the first caution at lap 37, and a handful of trucks came down pit road during the yellow. Buescher led the field back to green flag racing on lap 43. The second yellow flag of the night came out on lap 54 for several pieces of debris flying off the No. 07 truck of Neunberger. Once again the field came down to pit road, and Timothy Peters and Ricky Carmichael led the field to the green flag on lap 57. Kyle Busch began falling to the back with 41 laps remaining as he complained to his crew about a vibration. As the laps dwindled down the action began to pick up on track, after being mostly single file for the first half. With 35 laps remaining hood problems once again for Justin Marks, when his hood finally came up and he slammed into the outside wall, bringing out the night’s third caution and put the field in it’s fuel window. For the final scheduled time the leaders all came down pit road, with the majority of trucks once again electing to take fuel only. Brad Sweet won the race out of the pits but was penalized for taking equipment out of the box. The field went back to green with 31 laps to go and business began to pick up as Ricky Carmichael moved to the lead with Austin Dillon behind him. On the outside, though, Elliott Sadler led the outside line and took the race lead. Buescher was in second with 29 laps remaining, with Michael Waltrip third. Back in the pack Todd Bodine was looking for a head of steam to move up to the front. Daytona’s dreaded “Big One” came out on with 26 laps remaining after Travis Kvapil lost a left rear tire and collected a multitude of cars including Hornaday, Nelson Piquet, Jr., Matt Crafton, Johanna Long, Johnny Sauter, Neunberger, Bodine, Brendan Gaughan, Max Papis, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Josh White, Lofton, TJ Bell and Goess. Elliott Sadler and Dillon led the field back to the restart on lap 81, with Sadler able to jump to the front as Buescher raced the No. 3 on the outside. Caution once again came out with 17 laps to go after Papis tagged Justin Lofton, also collecting David Starr. Twelve laps remained when Sadler led the field back to the green, and on the outside Buescher challenged to no avail. With ten laps to go the field was mostly single file. Kyle Busch began pushing Chris Fontaine in the No. 84 on the outside, steadily moving their way up to the leaders, but steam began to come outside the No. 18. With five laps to go Fontaine and Busch charged to the front as steam poured out of Busch’s Toyota. Buescher led a line up the middle between Sadler and Fontaine, and just behind him Brad Sweat got loose and collected the majority of the field: Sweat, Almirola, Busch, Dillon, Parker Kligerman, Papis, Cole Whitt, and Carmichael. The leaders came down pit road for tires and fuel once the red flag was lifted after ten minutes. Saldler led the field to the green to begin the first of three possible attempts at a green-white-checkered. Sadler was able to clear Waltrip to make it single file with Miguel Paludo in third, and Cobb in fourth. Waltrip pushed the No. 2 of Sadler so the two were separated from the rest of the field, and began putting the pressure on the leading Chevrolet as they came closer to the checkered flag.
Waltrip then jumped out around Sadler and was able to snag the lead and the win away from Sadler, ten years to the day after his Daytona 500 win and the death of his then car owner and friend Dale Earnhardt. His damaged spoiler fell off after he won the race, causing a divide on Twitter whether the winning car was legal or not.
But none of that mattered in Victory Lane, where an emotional Waltrip in embraced his young daughter Macy before talking to SPEED's Krista Voda.
“I came here to celebrate a life,” the race winner said. “Not a win.”
Sadler finished second, followed by Clay Rogers, Miguel Paludo and a rebounding Kyle Busch. Jennifer Jo Cobb finished sixth, the first woman to ever finish in the top ten at Daytona in one of the NASCAR’s top three divisions.
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