Before he became a cartoon, ex-NASCAR champ and current TV commentator Darrell Waltrip could be a pretty insightful source for all things Daytona. In an interview years ago, he told me how the infield of Daytona International Speedway, and not Walt Disney World, was the happiest place in Florida.
That’s true—for a week or two in February, anyway. Before qualifying sessions and the twin qualifying races, anything is possible for the 50 or 60 race teams that might show up expecting to fill one of the 43 starting spots for the Daytona 500. Anyone might win. Anyone with a bare white car might land a major sponsor after a front-row qualifying run, or a stellar performance in a qualifying race. Anyone could be a hero.
There is no shortage of spunky teams and drivers prepared to heave a Hail Mary pass. And longshots do succeed from time to time: rookie Loy Allen qualified on the pole in 1994, and Trevor Bayne won it all last year—becoming the youngest winner to date—for the historic but part-time Wood Brothers team.
But most Hail Mary passes have already hit the turf by race Sunday—or Monday this year, due to weather. The haves have proven to be faster than the have-nots, and some of the hopeful teams have gone home to watch the spectacle on TV, having not qualified for the race. Even among the teams in the final Daytona 500 grid of 43, about 10 know they can win, 10 know they have a chance, and the rest are praying to just not screw the pooch. Back in the 2000 Daytona 500, Johnny Benson was an unlikely late-race leader, and I thought maybe he could pull it off. He did not.
This year, driver Dave Blaney, in the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet car, happened to be in the lead when Juan Pablo Montoya slammed into a jet-dryer truck, and the resulting conflagration stopped the race with the Ollie’s car in the lead. (No one would have expected to see those final five words in that order in print.) Had the track been damaged too badly by the jet-fuel-fed fire to continue the race, or had one of the nearby rain cells NASCAR officials monitored via their official weather radar screen settled over Daytona International Speedway, Dave Blaney would have won. Like Benson, he did not win.
(As an aside, have you heard the Montoya jokes? “How many drivers does it take to stop the Daytona 500 for two hours? Just Juan!” I didn’t say they were very funny.)
And although a stunning number of top cars fell out before the finish—five-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished 42nd after an early crash—the checkered flag flew first over three of the “haves,” as winner Matt Kenseth and fellow Roush Ford driver Greg Biffle bracketed the Chevrolet of second-place finisher Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Kenseth, a friendly but bland Wisconsin native—a colleague once suggested Kenseth’s favorite color was plaid—is not the sort of electric winner NASCAR would prefer to launch the 2012 season and sell tickets, but he’ll have to do, since there was no way to arrange for Danica Patrick to win her very first ever Sprint Cup race. (She was caught in the same wreck that claimed Jimmie Johnson, and repair times dropped her far down the leaderboard.) Blaney, whose small racing operation sold its guaranteed starting spot to Patrick so she wouldn’t have to risk qualifying, did have to qualify, and won $296,513, which will get them to the race in Phoenix this weekend. That’s maybe the most heroic performance I saw.
Typical of Daytona, NASCAR’s two lesser series delivered the storybook endings that the main event did not. Young, affable Ohio ride-buyer John King, after causing two major crashes, stumbled into the win in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World truck race. He was so grateful and self-effacing in Victory Lane, you couldn’t help but feel good for the rookie.
Similarly, James Buescher was running 11th on the last lap of Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race when the top 10 cars conveniently crashed into each other in the final turn, allowing Buescher to thread the needle of spinning cars and cross the finish line first. Yes, Buescher’s family is quite well off, and yes, he married the daughter of the team owner, but sometimes nice things happen when the actors depart from the script.
In 10 years, what will we remember about the 2012 Daytona 500? It was the first ever 500 postponed to Monday; it was Danica Patrick’s first Cup race, and her weekend resulted in three race entries and three crashes; and Juan Montoya’s broken car spun into that jet dryer under caution, causing it to burst into flames. Once that happened, those of us in the press box with some gray in our hair were all heard to say, “OK, now I’ve seen everything.”
Of course, we haven’t. And that’s why we keep watching on TV, in the stands, and in the press box.
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