{"id":21406,"date":"2017-02-26T22:34:58","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T03:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=21406"},"modified":"2017-02-26T22:42:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T03:42:39","slug":"kurt-busch-rides-last-lap-pass-to-daytona-500-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2017\/02\/kurt-busch-rides-last-lap-pass-to-daytona-500-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Busch Rides Last-Lap Pass to DAYTONA 500 Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/NASCAR-300x48.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"48\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-21379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/NASCAR-300x48.png 300w, https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/NASCAR.png 558w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Kurt Busch Rides Last-Lap Pass to DAYTONA 500 Victory<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00b7   Three-Time DAYTONA 500 Runner-Up Finally Gets Career-Defining Result<br \/>\n\u00b7         Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger Finish 2nd, 3rd<br \/>\n\u00b7         Mid-Race Accident Ends Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s Run<\/p>\n<p>DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 26, 2017) \u2013 Kurt Busch used a last-lap pass to win the 59th annual DAYTONA 500 Sunday in a raucous, rough-and-tumble season-opening race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n<p>Busch (No. 41 Haas Automation\/Monster Energy Ford), a three-time DAYTONA 500 runner-up and the 2004 series champion, made a high-line move coming off the Daytona International Speedway backstretch to pass Kyle Larson (No. 42 Target Chevrolet), as Larson was running out of fuel. Busch beat Ryan Blaney (No. 21 Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Tire &#038; Auto Center Ford) at the line by 0.228 seconds, with AJ Allmendinger (Kroger Click List Chevrolet) finishing third.<br \/>\n <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oUGKOFd_8GU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy rear-view mirror fell off with 30 laps to go,\u201d Busch said. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018that\u2019s an omen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The story of this victory comes with a couple of significant sub-plots. Busch\u2019s crew chief Tony Gibson is a native of Daytona Beach, while Busch\u2019s car owner Tony Stewart got a victory in the first race since he retired from driving after the 2016 season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ran this damn race for 17 years and couldn\u2019t win it,\u2019 Stewart said. \u201cNow, to win it as an owner \u2026 this is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polesitter Chase Elliott (No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet) led 39 laps and appeared headed toward Gatorade Victory Lane, but ran out of fuel himself with three laps remaining, giving the lead to Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 BASS Pro Shops\/TRACKER BOATS Toyota), who led for one lap before Blaney assumed the lead. Elliott finished 14th.<\/p>\n<p>Elliott and two-time DAYTONA 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet) started on the front row and led the 40-car field to the green flag. It was a back-to-the-future feel: their famous fathers who were bitter rivals, NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt, started 1-2 four times during their legendary careers.<\/p>\n<p>This race will be remembered, in part, for a series of multi-car incidents that involved many of NASCAR\u2019s biggest names and whittled the field in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7      On Lap 105, Kyle Busch\u2019s car (No. 18 M&#038;M\u2019s Toyota) had a tire go down in Turn 3, causing him to spin and collect five other cars, including Earnhardt\u2019s Chevrolet, which had been leading the race since Lap 97. The right front of Earnhardt\u2019s car rolled atop Busch\u2019s Toyota, causing considerable damage \u2013 to the radiator and suspension, primarily \u2013 which forced Earnhardt out of the race. Earnhardt, NASCAR\u2019s long-running most popular driver, was racing for the first since the middle of last season when he was sidelined due to concussion-like symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7      On Lap 128 in Turn 4, 17 cars were involved in another incident that ended the day for two-time DAYTONA 500 champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe\u2019s Chevrolet), and a strong-running Danica Patrick (No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford), among others. Two other former champions, Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota) and Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Jimmy John\u2019s Ford) were able to return after some repairs, with their chances of winning as dented as their cars.<\/p>\n<p>\u00b7      On Lap 142, 12 cars tangled on the backstretch, knocking out two more big names \u2013 former DAYTONA 500 champion Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Cessna McDonald\u2019s Chevrolet) and former series champion Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Miller Lite Ford).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more that becomes unpredictable about Daytona, the more it becomes predictable to predict unpredictability,&#8221; Busch said. &#8220;The more I run this race the more I just throw caution to the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speedweeks 2017 served as the debut for NASCAR\u2019s new national series format that divides races into three stages with extra points awarded to the top-10 finishers in each of the first two stages. The DAYTONA 500 had a 60-60-80 lap division. Kyle Busch led at the end of the first stage, with Harvick leading at the end of the second.<\/p>\n<p>Hamlin, the defending race champion, finished 17th, thwarted in his attempt to become only the fourth driver to win consecutive DAYTONA 500s. (Richard Petty in 1973-74, Cale Yarborough in 1983-84 and Sterling Marlin in 1994-95 are the three to achieve the feat.)<\/p>\n<p>Hamlin was one of 10 former DAYTONA 500 champions in the field, a group that included Michael Waltrip (No. 15 Aaron\u2019s Toyota), the champion in 2001 and \u201903 who finished eighth in his final NASCAR race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kurt Busch Rides Last-Lap Pass to DAYTONA 500 Victory \u00b7 Three-Time DAYTONA 500 Runner-Up Finally Gets Career-Defining Result \u00b7 Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger Finish 2nd, 3rd \u00b7 Mid-Race Accident Ends Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s Run DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Feb. 26, 2017) \u2013 Kurt Busch used a last-lap pass to win the 59th annual DAYTONA 500 Sunday [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21409,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21406\/revisions\/21409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}