Photo: Twitter.com
Ladies and gentlemen, NASCAR is back in a big way.
What a weekend we had in Daytona. From a pair of last-lap passes in trucks to the upset of the decade in Cup, 2021 is off and running with plenty of fireworks. Let’s take a look at each of the three races, and see what we can take away from them.
NextEra Energy Resources 250
The Truck Series at Daytona may be one of the most underrated races all year. I remember back in the early 2010’s going crazy watching guys like Michael Waltrip and John King escaping from all the carnage to come away with the win. This race had many of the expected front-runners swapping the lead, with ThorSport, GMS, KBM and DGR all having their time at the front. There was plenty of action all-around, as a wreck on the first lap was the first of six multi-car accidents. Ten cautions in total meant that over 40% of the race was run under yellow, with the longest green flag run being 16 laps at the end of the first stage. There was also a lot of aggressive swapping of the lead, as 12 drivers combined to swap the lead 31 times, with Chandler Smith leading all drivers with just 22 laps in front. A wreck on lap 96 led to overtime, with Ben Rhodes, David Gilliland, Matt Crafton and Sheldon Creed leading the pack. Creed moved around Gilliland, and used a massive push from Cory Roper to take the lead coming to the white flag. It was heading into turn one when Roper made a big, swooping move to the inside and left the defending champion in his dust. It looked like Roper was going to pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory for his family-owned team, as he led down the backstretch when Austin Wayne Self spun. But Rhodes held back, and got a run out of turn four that was way too big for Roper to block; and as Drew Dollar and Grant Enfinger sparked a big crash, it was Rhodes who edged out a hard-charging Jordan Anderson and Roper for his fourth career win. Ryan Truex and rookie Carson Hocevar rounded out the top-five.
Underdog of the Race: Cory Roper. It’s easy to give this award to Jordan Anderson for his second straight runner-up in this race; but his story has been told. Roper, like Anderson, is an owner-driver. The Mont Belvieu, TX, native has scraped and clawed for everything he has earned. When he decided to go truck racing and entered the 2018 Martinsville race, hardly anybody knew of him. After starting 17th, and running all 250 laps to wind up 13th, he’d made himself known. After running six, nine and 12 races the past three years, the team is making the jump to full-time in 2021, with sponsorship from Alliance Aviation. What better way to kick off their first full time campaign than by leading with a thousand feet to go at Daytona. Roper Racing is here to compete.
Biggest Takeaway: The Truck Series is wide open. Despite my prediction (see 10 Predictions in ‘21), John Hunter Nemechek and Austin Hill are not going to win five races each. If Daytona is any indication, there is a whole lot of parity in the Truck Series this year. Chandler Smith and Nemechek led 36 combined laps. There’s no way those trucks aren’t combining for multiple wins. GMS has five legitimate race winning trucks in their stable. Speaking of GMS, the guy who just left, Brett Moffitt, is still around in a truck that almost won the Championship in 2019. That truck lost to Matt Crafton and ThorSport, the team that just so happened to win Friday. Rhodes is in the playoffs, Crafton is always strong, the 98 truck won four races last year and Sauter is due for a big rebound. Hill had a slow start, but his consistency has always kept him in the thick of things at Hattori. That’s a good 13 trucks that can compete for wins; and I didn’t even mention Todd Gilliland, who made the Playoffs last year, or Derek Kraus, who just missed out on them. Throw in a Stewart Friesen, some Hailie Deegan and a little taste of Drew Dollar and Kyle Busch in the 51 and that is a recipe for a great Truck Series season.
Beef It's What's For Dinner 300
The Xfinity is going to have a hard time trying to one-up last year; but the first race was not a bad way to kick things off. After rain cancelled qualifying, the drivers lined up based on owner points from last year, putting defending Champion Austin Cindric on the pole. After tires problems on Mario Gosselin’s entries brought out three cautions in stage one, Brandon Jones was able to get around Riley Herbst in his new ride at SHR for the stage win. Jones’ day would be undone at the conclusion of the second stage, as a harmless spin turned into a day-ender as the wet tri-oval grass tore up his car. All four Gibbs cars were fast, as Jones won the first stage, Daniel Hemric rode solidly in the top ten most of the day and Harrison Burton led 28 laps. But nobody was more exciting to watch than the 54 of Ty Dillon, who drove with a chip on his shoulder after barely missing out on making the Daytona 500. The chip may have been too big however; as on lap 106 he made a bold three-wide move around his teammate of Hemric for second behind Burton, before coming down on him in turn-three, sparking a 14 car pile-up that ended the day for Herbst, Justin Allgaier, Justin Haley and Josh Berry in the Jr Motorsports no. 8 car. On the ensuing restart, Burton clearly missed the help of his teammates, as Cindric was able to move around him and take the lead back. After Landon Cassill went around off the bumper of Jeb Burton, a green-white-checkered decided the winner. Cindric worked both lanes to perfection, and kicked off his 2021 season the same way he ended 2020: in victory lane. Cindric held off Brett Moffitt, Harrison Burton, Jeb Burton and A.J. Allmendinger to give Roger Penske his first Xfinity Series win at Daytona.
Underdog of the Race: Brandon Brown. Yes, he made the Playoffs last year; but make no mistake: Brandon Brown is an underdog in every way. He is another driver that drives a family-owned car; and he does a great job taking care of his family’s equipment. In his two full time years, he has only wrecked out of three races. He is a smart and responsible racer; while also getting the most out of his equipment. Brown is an underrated superspeedway racer. He managed to match his best Daytona finish of sixth on Saturday despite being collected in the lap 106 accident. Brown has two seasons under his belt; and he’s off to a great start in year three.
Biggest Takeaway: To be the best, you must beat the best. Going into 2021, many pundits have picked one of Austin Cindric or Harrison Burton to win the Xfinity Series Championship. Wouldn’t you know it, they were the two best cars on Saturday. Make no mistake about it, these two are going to be the guys to beat every week, especially looking ahead at the schedule. Next week is the Daytona Road Course, won by Cindric last year. After that is Homestead-Miami, a track that Burton won at last year. With Chase Briscoe moving up to Cup, there are nine Xfinity wins from last year up for grabs. While that leaves many chances for Noah Gragson, Justin Allgaier, Justin Haley, A.J. Allmendinger or any other driver to step up; but they are going to have to beat the 20 and 22 in order to get it done.
Daytona 500
Before anything else, kudos to the workers at Daytona. Fighting the rain and getting the race in on Sunday is a major accomplishment that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Speaking of rain, everyone knew it wasn’t a matter of if it would hit, but when. That may have been what caused some drivers to get so aggressive so soon, which ultimately culminated in Christopher Bell getting pushed into Aric Almirola, whom he hit in the wrong spot and turned into the wall. The crash collected 16 drivers, including Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch, and eliminated big names such as Alex Bowman, Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman, a year after his death-defying crash at the finish. One lap after the crash, lightning struck within ten miles, forcing a delay. Once the cars stopped on pit road, the sky opened up, and the downpour began. For a long time, it looked like the race would, once again, be postponed to Monday; but eventually the rain slowly died, and the race was able to get started a little after nine o’clock Eastern time. Once the race got back going, Denny Hamlin showed why he had won three of the last five Daytona 500s; putting on a clinic on how to bob-and-weave your way to the front and taking both stages. The racing was much different after the delay, as the single-file freight train was the standard for the majority of the last 400 miles. The Toyotas were the front-runners, but Christopher Bell spinning after a flat-tire and Bubba Wallace’s unscheduled pit-stop hurt Hamlin and Kyle Busch when they got behind. The biggest handicap that Toyota dealt with was green flag pit-stops; as Toyota would pit by themselves and would lose all their momentum as they cycled back out. This was the case on the last stop, as the race stayed green after lap 137. Once Hamlin got sucked in by the freight-train and fell back, it was Joey Logano leading Fords Kevin Harvick, Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski. Nobody moved out of line, trying to make a push for the lead, until two laps to go; when Keselowski and McDowell moved around Harvick and had their sights set on the last lap. Coming to turn-three on the last lap, Keselowski had a huge run due to a push from McDowell, and ducked low on Logano. Logano tried blocking, but couldn’t hold it off, sending himself into the grass and Keselowski into the wall. McDowell flew off, with Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon in hot pursuit. Had the caution not flown, Elliott and Dillon would have duked it out between themselves trying to get to the line first; but that wasn’t the case, as Keselowski was annihilated by Busch and Austin Cindric, forcing him into the catchfence and causing a terrifying, fiery crash. Because of this, the caution had to be thrown; and Michael McDowell, a man who has driven 357 NASCAR Cup races, has only led 89 laps in his career and has had to fight and scrap for every opportunity, was declared the winner of the Daytona 500, his first career win and putting him into the NASCAR Playoffs. Elliott, Dillon, Harvick and Hamlin rounded out the top-five.
Underdog of the Race: Michael McDowell. I texted my mom after the race and told her that this was the biggest upset I’d ever seen. I have been watching since 2007, so that means it’s bigger than Trevor Bayne in 2011, bigger than David Ragan at Talladega in 2013 in McDowell’s ride nonetheless. This was while I was still in awe of what I had just seen. Now I am calmed down, and I still believe it. Bayne’s 2011 win was incredible, no denying it; same goes with Ragan getting help from teammate David Gilliland to win at Talladega. But McDowell takes the cake for me for one reason: his story. Bayne was in his second Cup start for the Wood Brothers. Ragan was in his seventh season, and had a win at Daytona in the Summer of 2011. McDowell was in his 357th career race, dating back to 2008. The only thing McDowell was known for by the average NASCAR fan was his horrifying flip in qualifying at Texas in 2008; not his win in the 2016 Xfinity Race at Road America, nor the $40 thousand he donated to charity for auctioning off a bumper from a car that he wrecked. McDowell was a driver that most knew, many rooted, but few thought he would ever win. That all changed at the biggest stage. When Logano and Keselowski, the two leaders who wrecked on the last lap, say they’re happy for you to win, when Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain run to push your car out of the grass so you can keep celebrating, there’s no question as to how the garage views McDowell. Now the fans can view him as a Daytona 500 champion.
Biggest Takeaway: Austin Dillon. I will be honest: I have never been that big on Dillon. I thought he was a decent driver, not much more; kind of like a Clint Bowyer. He had a great Playoffs, highlighted by his Richmond performance, which was an eye opener for me. I still didn’t give him much thought for Playoffs, since he wouldn’t have been particularly close to them last year if not for his gamble at Texas. He really impressed me during Speedweeks. He won his Duel, making a brilliant move coming to the line after a great push from Kevin Harvick. Then, in the 500, he was up front all race long, and looked to be in prime position to earn himself a second Daytona 500 crown. Daytona can kind of be a misleading way to see how a team looks out of the gate; but if Dillon can keep up momentum from the Playoffs and Daytona, he has a real shot to make the Playoffs, win or not.
That’s all for the Daytona recap. Stay tuned later this week as we preview the Road Course at… Daytona. If you have any questions or comments, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @HBLoomis, and let’s talk racing!
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