The 2012 Nascar Season started with the 33rd annual Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway, which was an exciting race that included a lot of wrecks. Last year, Daytona was repaved after 50 plus years of racing on the old surface. The repaving of Daytona led to a new style of racing, which was one car pushing another car around the track. This new style referred to as "the two-car tandem" type racing, allowed speeds to be several miles an hour faster then what one car could run by itself. During winter testing, Nascar tried to stop the tandem racing and bring back the pack racing. Hey a rhyme, bring back the pack. I like that, thats my new phrase. Anyway enough of that, as winter testing went on, the pack racing was back again, and speeds of the cars in the pack were over 200 mph. Nascar has also tried to make the qualifying speeds faster. Before this year, qualifying speeds were at least in the 180 mph range, and speeds in the pack were at least 190-200 mph.
Well thats exactly what we saw last night, as the pack racing caused a lot of wrecks. In the picture above, on lap 9, David Ragan, #34 was bump drafting Paul Menard #27 going into turn 1. Menard is the blue and yellow car against the wall, the Best Buy car is Matt Kenseth, and the Farmers Insurance #5 is Kasey Kahne. The Target car is Juan Montoya, and the FedEx Express car is Denny Hamlin. As they went through the corner, Ragan turned Menard sideways causing a wreck that took out Michael Waltrip #55 (the white and blue car behind the sparks) and Juan Pablo Montoya #42, and drivers who received damage, but were able to continue, were Matt Kenseth, #17, and Kasey Kahne, #5 who would finish 2 or 3 laps down. Now I know what you're thinking, surely there's one big wreck in a race. Nope not at all my friend.
Then, as you see above, there was a second big crash with 20 laps to go, when Joey Logano #20, (the orange car beside Truex) was turned by Marcos Ambrose #9 in the middle of turns 1 and 2. The result, another crash, and Kevin Harvick's #29 (the white and red Budweiser machine) car catching on fire on the backstretch, and Harvick couldn't stop because he didn't have any brakes. Fortunately, the fire went out, and Harvick made it to the garage. Matt Kenseth's #17 Ford was in the crash, ending his night. Also Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 (the blue and white National Guard Car) was in the crash and Martin Truex Jr. #56 (the NAPA car on the outside wall) was also in the wreck.
As you see in the picture on the above, the final wreck occured with 2 laps to go, as the intensity was picking up, as the drivers went into turn 3, as Tony Stewart #14 was the leader, Kyle Busch in second was pushed by Jeff Gordon #24. Then Jeff turned Kyle around, and caused another big wreck that I'll never forget, as Gordon ended up flipping a couple of times before landing on his roof. Fox announcer MIke Joy said "Jeff came over the radio and said he is okay". Now the question was, who's left? Stewart, Busch, and the drivers in the picture above driving around the wreck. The yellow and black car is Ambrose, the 5 hour energy car is Clint Bowyer, the Miller Lite car is Brad Kesolowski, and the Fastenal car is the man, Carl Edwards.
The finish was great. as the drivers went into overtime, or as its called, "Green, White, Checkered". The green flag flew, and Tony Stewart and Marcos Ambrose lead the field into turn 1. Stewart didn't have help at the time and in restrictor plate racing, with the engines being restricted of horsepower, you have to have drafting help to win. Ambrose would lead off of turn 2 on the backstretch. But as the drivers took the white flag, Stewart passed Ambrose while the field crossed the finish line and took the lead. Busch was the driver who pushed Stewart into the lead and the two drove away, using the tandem stye drafting I talked about earlier. Busch's car was damaged after almost spinning out and saving the car, scraping the apron, which is the bottom part of the track. As they came out of turn 4, the crowd watched as Busch's car was dragging the track. The remaining drivers came towards the finish line, Busch made a last lap pass on Stewart and won the race.
It was a great race, and I enjoyed watching it with my family. Carl Edwards earned the pole for the Daytona 500 next Sunday, and teammate Greg Biffle qualified second today.
