Regan Smith, interim driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 16th Sunday in the 57th running of the Daytona 500, the season-opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
Smith was selected to drive the No. 41 Chevrolet after Kurt Busch was indefinitely suspended from NASCAR on Friday afternoon. He had just one practice session Saturday to get comfortable in the car, and his laps were limited to single-car runs, as the Tony Gibson-led team did not want to risk damaging their racecar.
Smith was credited with taking the green flag from the 24th position Sunday, but he started at the back of the field due to a driver change after qualifying, per the NASCAR rulebook. He spent the first several laps trying to get a feel for the car’s handling in the draft. Despite struggling with a tight-handling racecar, he bided his time, logging laps while coming to pit road when the opportunity allowed for the Haas Automation team to make needed chassis adjustments. The adjustments sometimes hindered and other times helped cure the handling woes of Smith’s racecar.
“We started off really tight and weren’t able to get it to turn,” Smith said. “It was frustrating. I anticipated a much better day. The Haas Automation team did a nice job all weekend, but we just couldn’t overcome the tightness in the corners.”
A late-race caution pushed the race into overtime, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. Gibson called the No. 41 to pit road for four fresh tires, giving Smith one final opportunity at improving his position. The strategy saw Smith restart toward the back of the field, but with savvy driving he managed to avoid a last-lap incident that occurred in front of him and advance to the 16th position before NASCAR elected to throw the caution flag, freezing the field and ending the race.
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS, led the way for SHR Sunday by finishing second. Harvick earned his seventh top-five in 28 career points-paying Sprint Cup starts at Daytona after starting 11th.
Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet for SHR, finished 21st. She also had to start at the back of the field after crashing her primary racecar in the Budweiser Duel qualifying race on Thursday.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 42nd after an accident on lap 42.
Joey Logano won the Daytona 500 to score his ninth career Sprint Cup victory and his first at Daytona.
Finishing third behind Logano and Harvick was Dale Earnhardt Jr., while Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five. Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were seven caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 203-lap race, which was extended three laps from its scheduled 200-lap distance by a green-white-checkered finish.
With round one of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He is second with 42 points, five points behind first-place Logano. Patrick is 18th with 23 points, 24 points out of first. Stewart is 36th with two points, 45 points out of first. Smith didn’t accumulate any points, because he is a fulltime driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.