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| The Monster Energy Cup Series raced to beat each other, as well as the rain in Daytona this weekend (Google Images) |
While the major story through much of the weekend was the stormy weather (it is Florida in July, after all), a couple of surprise winners is exactly what we came away with as the sport heads to Kentucky next weekend.
Haley, Spire Motorsports Score Surprising Win
There are upset wins in sports every now and then. Then there are upsets so big that it almost seems inappropriate to classify them as such. Justin Haley's win in Sunday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 seems to fit into that latter category.
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| Justin Haley scored his first premier series win at Daytona (Google Images) |
After weather washed out the scheduled running of the final Monster Energy Cup Series race at Daytona in July for the forseeable future, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch finally led the field to green under partly cloudy skies on Sunday afternoon.
Stage 1 went caution free, and saw Logano work with his Ford Performance teammates to score the victory in the race's initial segment. While these are some of the best drivers in the world, they would not stay calm for long.
An ill-timed block of Kurt Busch's No. 1 car sent leader Ricky Stenhouse, Jr through the rain-soaked infield grass on lap 60. But as Stage 2 continued, the sky behind the grandstands grew darker and the intensity began to pick up.
Brad Keselowski had been saying that he would not lift if any drivers tried to block him during the weekend; a point he tried to drive home by driving through William Byron in practice. However, on lap 84, Keselowski died by that very same sword, as Kevin Harvick didn't lift after bumping the No. 2 car. This got the 2012 series champion loose and sent him into the outside wall, ending his day. The wreck also collected Daniel Suarez, David Ragan, and Daniel Hemric.
What was Byron's response to the Keselowski incident? After finding out the "Blue Deuce" had been shunted into the wall, the sophomore driver simply radioed to his crew, saying "that's too bad."
Following that chaos, Austin Dillon found himself out in front, claiming the victory in Stage 2.
The clouds around Daytona International Speedway grew darker as Stage 3 went on. This led to a great deal of three- and four-wide racing for what could wind up being the win, should bad weather come. Drivers dodged the big wreck all day long, but it always seems to be a matter of 'when' and 'where' at these superspeedways, rather than 'if" a major pileup will happen.
On lap 120, Dillon blocked a run by Clint Bowyer to try and protect his lead coming out of the tri-oval, which sent his No. 3 Chevy around off Bowyer's nose, collecting many of the leaders. Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, defending race winner Erik Jones, and last week's winner Alex Bowman were among the 18 casualties that resulted from this wreck.
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| The "Big One" collected nearly 20 cars in the closing laps at Daytona (Google Images) |
Because it took so long to get many of these cars out of the over-saturated grass in turns one and two, that allowed the bad storms that had been around the racetrack all afternoon to creep ever closer and literally put a damper on things. Once things were cleaned up, NASCAR told teams that it was going to go back racing. Kurt Busch and his team agreed to pit with one lap to go before the restart, putting themselves in position to race for the win on fresh tires. But Mother Nature had other ideas.
As soon as Busch came down pit road, a lightning strike could be seen behind the speedway. This resulted in a mandatory 30-minute red flag, as a precaution to protect fans and crews. Once that half hour had expired, the rain that had stayed away from the track all day long finally showed up just as drivers were beginning to climb back aboard their cars.
This meant Busch was tenth and Haley was the leader, with little indication that we would go back green anytime soon.
NASCAR waited for the better part of two hours before finally calling the race official and awarding a controversial victory to Haley and Spire Motorsports. Byron was second, Jimmie Johnson was third, Ty Dillon fourth and Ryan Newman fifth. Sixth place went to Corey LaJoie, seventh went to Aric Almirola, Matt DiBenedetto was eighth, Matt Tifft came home ninth, and Kurt Busch was forced to settle for tenth.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will join both the Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoors Truck Series at Kentucky Speedway this weekend, when the Quaker State 400 goes green at 7:30 pm ET on Saturday, July 13. Coverage will be on NBCSN, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Chastain Scores Second Career Xfinity Win
Mother Nature delayed things for a few hours on Friday night, but when it came time for the Circle K Firecracker 250 to go green, fans were not disappointed. Polesitter Tyler Reddick was strong, as he and his No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team have been all season, but it was the three-car team of Kaulig Racing that would dominate the evening.
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| Alva, Fla. native Ross Chastain celebrates his first Xfinity win of 2019 by smashing another watermelon (Google Images) |
Justin Haley is the only Kaulig driver running for points this season, but team owner Matt Kaulig and General Manager Chris Rice have been looking a win since joining the Xfinity Series in 2016. So, to help bolster that effort, they brought along the No. 10 Chevy for driver A.J. Allmendinger, as well as the brand new No. 16 Camaro for driver Ross Chastain.
Everything went according to plan, as this trio was able to team up and work together for the majority of the race.
The first incident in Stage 1 happened early. On lap 10, the No. 90 car of Caesar Bacarella got loose on the bottom of the racetrack and spun, collecting Austin Cindric, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, and a few other drivers.Most all of these drivers were able to repair their vehicles and return to action. An errant bump draft from the No. 7 of Justin Allgaier sent his teammate Sheldon Creed spinning with just seven laps remaining in the race's first stage. The incident also collected the No. 23 of John Hunter Nemechek, and helped lock up the Stage 1 victory for Chastain.
Stage 2 saw just as much action as the first segment, as on lap 46, Reddick's Camaro drifted up the track entering the tri-oval and collected the Mustang of Chase Briscoe. Both drivers slid to the inside of the track, with Briscoe making heavy head-on contact with the inside Safer Barrier.
Kaulig Racing's three entries continued to run roughshod over the rest of the field, with Allmendinger winning the race's second stage.
As the race for the win wound down, Reddick and Hayley were side-by-side for the top spot when "the Big One" happened behind them. The No. 20 of Christopher Bell gave a shot to an unstable Michael Annett, tipping his No. 1 Chevy into the outside wall. This collected 15 cars, including Custer, who t-boned Annett in the passenger side door, and resulted in a 17 minute red flag for cleanup.
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| Chase Briscoe (98) slides through the grass after contact with Tyler Reddick (2) (Google Images) |
In the closing laps, Haley pushed Chastain around the 2.5 mile, high banked oval, but couldn't get enough help from behind to pass his teammate. Chastain was able to hold off his challengers and score his second career Xfinity Series win. Allmendinger also went from fifth to third on the final lap, which meant that Kaulig Racing had not only won it's first race, but it had also finished in the top three positions. Or so it seemed.
Allmendinger's engine failed a vacuum test after the race.A part failure around the area of the tapered spacer had allowed additional air into the intake manifold, which meant that the No. 10 team was disqualified. Kaulig Racing will not appeal the ruling.
This meant that Chastain was your winner, Haley was second, and Bell jumped up to third. Cindric was fourth, Stephen Leicht was fifth, Brandon Brown was sixth, Jeff Green was seventh, Gray Gaulding was eighth, Jeremy Clements crossed the line in ninth, and Matt Mills finished in tenth.
The Xfinity Series Alsco 300 from Kentucky Speedway will go green at 7:30 pm ET on Friday, July 12, with coverage on NBCSN, PRN, and SiriusXM Nascar Radio.
The truck series Buckle Up in Your Truck 225 will be held on Thursday, July 11 at 7:30 pm ET. Coverage can be seen on FS1 and heard on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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