Today, February 14th, 2010 is the day. After 87 days of waiting since the checkered flag at Homestead, we are here in anticipation of the 52nd running of the Daytona 500.
We were kept busy in the off-season, watching Danica Patrick’s inaugural ARCA participation. We watched her in the NASCAR Nationwide race, the Drive4COPD 300. Sadly, Daytona bit Danica like it does anyone else. Welcome to NASCAR Danica! Restrictor Plate racing has it’s ups and downs, and since you got the ‘down’ out of the way, we’ll see how the rest of the season will treat you.
Today sees new rules being handed out. A wee bit larger restrictor plates, NASCAR’s hands-off policy on self-policing… yea… we have a new sort of era coming into the 2010 season.
2010 Daytona 500 NASCAR drivers meeting (Photo from Jeff Gluck)
The Daytona 500 Starting Line Up: For the 500, the front row holds some big fan favorites of Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Many want to see either of these guys win the 500.
But you can’t out some other guys back in the starting grid. Jimmie Johnson on the inside of row 2, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart owning row 3.
We need to be weary of that yellow, M&M decorated No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch’s.
2008′s surprise winner, Ryan Newman, sits on the inside of row 9.
The Daytona International Speedway Seats are no longer empty today
Denny Hamlin lurks on the inside of row 13, with his injured knee, sharing the row with his buddy, Brad Keselowski.
Row 14 has the ever anxiety ridden Carl Edwards eyeing the checkered flag. I call him anxiety ridden because of late, he’s been the bumper in the air or the bumper tapping people around.
Those on the Outside, Looking In:
Some of the backfillers, well, this has to be an exciting day for them. Max Papis, John Andretti, Robby Gordon, Boris Said, Joe Nemechek, Bobby Labonte and Michael Waltrip. These guys obviously beat out the odds to get into the field. I’m not expecting to hear their names associated with the final lap dash to the checkers… depending on who’s left at the end of the day.
It’s really anyone’s game today when the green flag flies at 1:19 p.m., Eastern. As this article goes live this morning, the drivers meeting is underway.
[The section below here, is being saved for news, notes and observations after the race!]
Harry Connick Jr., a seasoned and popular choice for the anthem, delivered a proper anthem. Thank you!
As the race started, some cars dropped back and the field spread out pretty fast as Mark Martin led the first lap, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr..
Lap 8 saw the first mess… the 12 car (Brad Keselowski) blew a RR tire and lost it and collected a number of cars that were in the back of the pack.. – 13 (Max Papis), 26 (Boris Said), 36 (Mike Bliss), 77 (Sam Hornish), & 78 (Regan Smith) cars were collected. Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards slinked through the mess luckily.
And as they’ve said, hanging back isn’t always the safest on some days.
The lap 12 restart saw the same front row of Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lead them to the green and not much long after, Dale Jr. took the lead and Mark Martin got shuffled ino the middle line and he went to the back, to the 23rd spot within 2 laps.
On lap 28 Kasey Kahne was saying there are a lot of loose cars out there, his not so bad.
Lap 32: 2, 29, 19, 14, 33, 00, 88, 43, 48 & 9 cars are the top 10 in the field.
After green flag pit stops around lap 50:
| Pos | Driver | laps |
| 1 | Kurt Busch | 53 |
| 2 | A.J. Allmendinger | 53 |
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 53 |
| 4 | Kasey Kahne | 53 |
| 5 | Kevin Harvick | 53 |
| 6 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 53 |
| 7 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 53 |
| 8 | Elliott Sadler | 53 |
| 9 | Kyle Busch | 53 |
| 10 | Clint Bowyer | 53 |
| 11 | Martin Truex Jr. | 53 |
| 12 | Carl Edwards | 53 |
| 13 | Tony Stewart | 53 |
| 14 | Mark Martin | 53 |
| 15 | Jamie McMurray | 53 |
| 16 | Greg Biffle | 53 |
| 17 | Brian Vickers | 53 |
| 18 | David Reutimann | 53 |
| 19 | David Ragan | 53 |
| 20 | Jeff Gordon | 53 |
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Lap 66 saw the No. 77 Toyota of Joe Nemechek get turned into the wall after getting aero loose with the No. 77 seeing the show in front of, and then behind him!
Lap 71 green flag restart saw these top-10 lead the pack: 2, 43, 9,29, 48, 56, 99, 16, 33 & 18. Ryan Newman was 30th, Tony Stewart in 12th.
Mike Bliss in the No. 36 car spun to bring out the yellow and the field pits again. Ryan Newman took no tires and jumped up a bunch of spots.
Lap 83 sees 16, 18, 2, 24 and 33 up front after the restart. Ryan Newman missed his stalls during pitting, had to go back, and he restarted 31st. Meanwhile, Tony Stewart is 10th.
Lap 99 became the 14th different leader as he took the lead from Kyle Busch… and the crowd goes crazy… “aaahhhhhhh”
At the halfway point, at lap 102, the top 20 cars were:
| Pos | Driver | laps |
| 1 | Clint Bowyer | 102 |
| 2 | Kyle Busch | 102 |
| 3 | Kevin Harvick | 102 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 102 |
| 5 | Greg Biffle | 102 |
| 6 | Kasey Kahne | 102 |
| 7 | Elliott Sadler | 102 |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 102 |
| 9 | Martin Truex Jr. | 102 |
| 10 | Carl Edwards | 102 |
| 11 | Kurt Busch | 102 |
| 12 | Jamie McMurray | 102 |
| 13 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 102 |
| 14 | David Ragan | 102 |
| 15 | Jimmie Johnson | 102 |
| 16 | Tony Stewart | 102 |
| 17 | Mark Martin | 102 |
| 18 | Brian Vickers | 102 |
| 19 | David Reutimann | 102 |
| 20 | A.J. Allmendinger | 102 |
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Ouch on lap 116, when John Andretti painted the wall for another caution…
Lap 122 saw a red flag for a broken track chunk with repairs that went underway. It was a long wait for the fix…. over an hour and a half. It was first a hole on top of the track, but according to Twitter, the hole became a sink-hole. After about an hour, Brian France came on the air to let us know what was up… we already did, but it was a great gesture that was a long time coming after that kind of a wait.
With 78 laps to go, over 90 minutes, the race got going again.
By lap 148, they’ve set the number of cars that have led the race… a great point to the parity that NASCAR has been pursuing for many years.
With just 50 to go, here’s how the top 20 looked… this after A.J. Allmendinger had found himself in the infield after spinning off the pace.
| Pos | Driver | laps |
| 1 | Kevin Harvick | 151 |
| 2 | Martin Truex Jr. | 151 |
| 3 | Clint Bowyer | 151 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 151 |
| 5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 151 |
| 6 | Carl Edwards | 151 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | 151 |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 151 |
| 9 | Kyle Busch | 151 |
| 10 | Jamie McMurray | 151 |
| 11 | Jimmie Johnson | 151 |
| 12 | Elliott Sadler | 151 |
| 13 | Denny Hamlin | 151 |
| 14 | Brian Vickers | 151 |
| 15 | Jeff Burton | 151 |
| 16 | Mark Martin | 151 |
| 17 | Kasey Kahne | 151 |
| 18 | David Ragan | 151 |
| 19 | Matt Kenseth | 151 |
| 20 | David Reutimann | 151 |
.
With 41 to go, and Kevin Harvick, Juan Montoya, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle and Martin Truex Jr. leading the pack, a debris caution for the asphalt was out once again. The hole opened back up again… as most temporary fixes just never fly. We sat for more repair time.
The race resumed and as the excitement built, Fox went to commercial with 20 to go. That got a few of us on Twitter a bit dizzy.
With 16 to go, Jimmie Johnson’s luck changed and lost a tire… just past pit road, eliminating him from contention. But this is consistent for Jimmie. He’s traditionally never done well at the Daytona opener, so Jimmie is still on track for the season. Jimmie Johnson will finish 34th after braking something in his rear-end.
With 7 to go, Travis Kvapil and Ryan Newman get taken out by Elliott Sadler as he became loose and hooked the no. 39 car… Ouch. Poor Ryan.
Then with 2 to go, Logano gets into it with Bill Elliott… and Boris Said… just a racin’ get-together.
With 2 to go, we get a green, white, checkered start with Biffle and Truex Jr leading the hungry pack. But during the restart, Harvick and Truex got together enough to slow down the inside line and the accordian affect caused some cars in the back of the pack to wreck. Stewart and Jeff Gordon had close calls getting by the developing wreck.
Harvick led the pack to the next green – white – checkered restart.
Harvick lost the lead to the outside line, and Jamie McMurray got out in the lead. From the middle of the pack, Dale Earnhardt Jr forced his way through the pack from 10th at the restart and came hard at McMurray. He never overtook him, but Dale Jr. did come in 2nd behind Jamie McMurray, the winner of the 2010 Daytona 500.
The top 10 finishers, per the live leaderboard on NASCAR.com:
| Pos | Driver | laps of 200 |
| 1 | Jamie McMurray | 208 |
| 2 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 208 |
| 3 | Greg Biffle | 208 |
| 4 | Clint Bowyer | 208 |
| 5 | David Reutimann | 208 |
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | 208 |
| 7 | Kevin Harvick | 208 |
| 8 | Matt Kenseth | 208 |
| 9 | Carl Edwards | 208 |
| 10 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 208 |
