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[h=2]Kurt Busch wins wild Daytona 500 on last lap[/h] Sunday, 26 February 2017


RACER staff / Images by LAT

In a race punctuated by numerous accidents, fuel mileage proved critical at the end of the Daytona 500 as Kurt Busch stormed through to victory – his first in the Great American Race – with a last-lap pass of Kyle Larson in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Ford.
Polesitter Chase Elliott appeared set to win until his No. 24 Chevrolet sputtered on fumes and fell back, fell back in the pack. Busch then grabbed the lead from Larson's Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet and held off a charging Ryan Blaney's No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford to the finish line.


"There is nothing predictable about this race anymore, and the more years that have gone by that I didn't win I kept trying to go back to patterns that I had seen in the past," Busch said. "My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back. And I thought that was an omen. Throw caution to the wind.
"It just got crazy and wild, and I am so proud of all the drivers at the end. We put on a show for a full fuel run, and nobody took each other out and it was one of the smartest chess games I have seen out there. All the hard work that Ford and SHR put into this – this Ford Fusion is in Daytona's Victory Lane!"
AJ Allmendinger took third in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Richard Petty Motorsports' Aric Almirola and Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard rounded out the top five, respectively.
The wreck-filled day began 104 laps in when a flat rear tire caused Kyle Busch to spin, involving Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones and Elliott Sadler, who was able to continue the race with minimal damage. Busch, Earnhardt, Kenseth, Dillon and Jones were all declared out, while the sidelined Busch went on a tirade about tire supplier Goodyear.
A classic Daytona "Big One" came 23 laps later, when third-place Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 spun across the track after contact from Trevor Bayne, and 16 other cars were involved in the melee. Harvick, Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Joey Gase and Landon Cassill were included in the list of those involved.
Another key wreck came at lap 141 after Chase Elliott's No. 24 car got loose, with Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Ty Dillon and Ryan Newman getting caught up in the ensuing chaos.
The debut of NASCAR's new stage format saw Kyle Busch won Stage 1 and Harvick took Stage 2, earning 10 race points and 1 playoff point apiece, while Kurt Busch earned 40 race points and five playoff points for his win.


The win marked the first Daytona 500 win for the recently retired SHR co-owner Tony Stewart.
"It was a crazy race, even crazier to sit and watch it from a pit box finally," Stewart said. "If I had known all I had to do was retire, I would have retired 17 years ago, if I knew it was what it took to win the race ... I ran this damn race for 18 years and didn't win it.
"Kurt did an amazing job. He doesn't even have a rear view mirror. The mirror folded on him. His spotter, Tony Raines, did an amazing job. That is the most composed I have ever seen Kurt at the end of a race. He deserved this."



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Quotes courtesy NASCAR Wire Service