Photo: CharlotteObserver.com
Cautions breed cautions. Especially when you’re in Daytona.
We had ourselves a historic weekend at the World Center of Racing. Between a repeat-winner and two first-time winners, there is plenty to take away from this week.
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There are many kinds of NASCAR races you can watch. There’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Then there’s Friday night’s Truck race. Simply put, this race was a beautiful mess. We knew we were in for a wild one after the race started under wet weather conditions; but nobody predicted what we got. After a fairly normal opening stages, won once again by John Hunter Nemechek and Raphael Lessard, the race took a wild turn in the final stage. After Nemechek dominated early, in the end the battle for the win came down to Sheldon Creed and Ben Rhodes. They swapped the lead twice in three laps; once on lap 41 and again on lap 44 when the two made contact and Rhodes took the top spot during a green-white-checkered. Soon after the pass was made, with many drivers near out of fuel, the caution came out; then another one came out, and another one to end the race. Three overtimes took place, leading to seven extra laps being run. Rhodes nearly won after 46 laps, but was about 50 yards short of taking the white flag when Austin Wayne Self and Todd Gilliland got together to bring out the yellow. After a second quick yellow, Rhodes got the lead on the final restart, and held off Creed to open the season with a second straight win at Daytona, joining Mark Martin in 2006 and Johnny Sauter in 2013 as the only drivers to win the first two races in a Truck series season. Nemechek recovered from a fuel issue to end up third, with Gilliland and Riley Herbst, in the DGR no. 17, rounding out the top five.
Underdog of the Race: Timmy Hill. How about Timmy Hill? The owner-driver survived the chaos around him to earn a ninth place finish. Hill made headlines last year by winning the Pro Invitational Series race at Texas; but he’s been around for longer than you may think. The Port Tobacco, MD, native made his national touring series debut in 2011, capturing the Rookie of the Year in what was then called the Nationwide Series. He has made 388 starts amongst the top three series, with his best finish being a third in the season opening Xfinity race last year at Daytona. It’s always to see a true-racer like Hill have success. On top of that all, Hill announced the birth of his son, Hudson Grant Hill, on Monday. Congratulations to Timmy and Lucy Hill.
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The Xfinity race started as everyone expected it to; as Austin Cindric and Aj Allmendinger were setting sail in front. The race got completely flipped on its head at the conclusion of the first stage, as Allmendinger blocked Cindric down to the apron before spinning out, damaging his nose in the grass. Cindric won the stage, but got significant damage to his right front fender. With Allmendinger losing several laps and Cindric having to claw his way back to the front, this left the door open for someone to come in and steal stage two. The role would be filled by 18 year old Ty Gibbs, in his national touring series debut. While Gibbs stole the show up front, Cindric mustered his way to sixth at the end of the stage, taking the lead back immediately at the start of the final stage. A debris caution with two laps left forced overtime; and also forced some leaders to pit. Coming to the restart, it was Ryan Sieg leading the way. The restart was chaotic as it gets, with Cindric and Gibbs making bonsai moves in the middle of the pack to make their way back to the front. Meanwhile up front, Sieg running off the track stacked the field up, leading to a caution for a crash involving five drivers, including Myatt Snider and Stephen Leicht. Jeb Burton emerged with the lead, looking for his first win. It was not meant to be; as Burton was quickly passed by a superstar in the making: Ty Gibbs. Gibbs, a high-schooler who has never even raced in the Truck series, schooled everyone and flat-out drove away to an unprecedented win. Gibbs is the youngest Xfinity winner since Chase Elliott in 2014; and is the first driver to win his Xfinity debut since Kurt Busch in 2006. Cindric ended up second, 1.7 seconds back. Daniel Hemric, Brandon Jones and Burton rounded out the top five.
Underdog of the Race: Ty Gibbs. Yeah yeah, I know he drives for JGR, but I cannot stress enough how significant this win is. I mentioned that he is the first driver to win in their Xfinity debut since Kurt Busch in 2006; but here’s what I didn’t add: Kurt Busch was 27 years old and already a NASCAR Cup Champion when he won at Texas. Gibbs is 18 years old. A driver winning a Truck race at 18 is significant; winning in Xfinity at 18 is almost unheard of. The last two drivers to win at 18 in the Xfinity series are Chase Elliott in 2014 and Joey Logano in 2008. Those two drivers have combined for 37 career Cup wins and two Cup championships. Gibbs is in some special company there. Add to it that he drives for his grandpa in Joe Gibbs, and Gibbs is a potential superstar in the making.
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When Michael McDowell flew off the track on lap one, you knew this was going to be a crazy race. One thing was clear from the beginning: Chase Elliott was once again the class of the field. He would restart first and have a second and a half lead by the end of one lap. He breezed to the stage win. He was back ahead during stage two when Ross Chastain wrecked after getting help from Ryan Blaney. This set the stage for pit stops, which Denny Hamlin stayed out for and ended up taking stage two.
The third stage saw some very uncharacteristic mistakes get made by some top drivers. Brad Keselowski slid off the track at one point, as did Kurt Busch while he led. Elliott finally got the lead back from Christopher Bell on lap 41 and seemed poised to drive away to a fifth straight road course win. Then, on lap 58, NASCAR threw out the caution for rain. With the rain being light and the race being on a road course, the call was very questionable. This set up pit stops, where several drivers stayed out. Elliott lost several spots, falling behind Bell, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson among others. On the restart, Bell and Larson moved their way up the field. Elliott got shuffled around, before making one of the best saves in recent memory in the grass, before the caution came out for Tyler Reddick catching fire. The next restart didn’t go much better, as the caution flew again for Elliott turning Corey LaJoie around. The next restart would come with eight laps ago; and it would be the last one of the day. That’s not to say no incidents happened after. Larson looked to be in position to steal the win until he wheel-hopped and hit the tire barrier at the entrance back to the superspeedway. Elliott tried making a move on Keselowski at the same spot as Larson spun, when he moved in front of Hamlin and went around. This relegated Elliott to a 21st place run, after leading 44 laps.
Out front, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch led while Bell ran third. It looked like Logano was going to run away as Bell struggled to get around Busch, even getting a tire rub at one point. When Bell finally got around Busch, he had five laps to mow down his lead. What seemed like an insurmountable lead was quickly erased, as Bell used his fresher tires to charge Logano down and pass him in the chicane coming to the white flag. After a clean last lap, Christopher Bell, who struggled in the no. 95 car last year, won for the first time in his second race in the JGR no. 20, the team’s second win in as many days. Logano wound up second, followed by Hamlin in third. Busch and Keselowski rebounded to round out the top-five.
This is the first time since NASCAR’s second season in 1950 that the first two races saw first-time winners. This is also the first time we’ve seen back-to-back winners in Cup since Alex Bowman at Chicagoland and Justin Haley at Daytona in 2019; but before that the feat hadn’t been done since Tony Stewart at Richmond and Joe Nemechek at New Hampshire in 1999.
Underdog of the Race: Aj Allmendinger. It was reported during the race that if Allmendinger ran top-ten on Sunday, that Kaulig Racing would try to find more races for him in Cup this season. Well, after leading two laps and finishing seventh, I’d say he met their goals and then some. Allmendinger, a former Cup series winner, is running full time in Xfinity with Kaulig Racing. Kaulig has been a staple in Xfinity racing for a few years now, but is rumored to be looking at a full-time Cup series effort with the next-gen car in 2022. Between Allmendinger’s experience, Xfinity driver Justin Haley on the heels of the Cup series and Kaz Grala running the Daytona 500 for the team, Kaulig Racing would definitely have their options if they choose to make an attempt at the big leagues. This run helps to show that they can go out and hold their own.
So that wraps up the second week of action in 2021. Trucks are off next week, while Xfinity and Cup stay in Florida, heading to Miami for a weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Be on the lookout for that weekend preview later this week.
What did you think of this weekend of racing? What are you expecting next weekend? Leave a message in the chat or find me on Twitter @HBLoomis. Let’s talk racing!
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