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Austin Dillon wins Daytona 500 years after being in victory lane with Dale Earnhardt Sr. | ESPN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ9vdJpm2B4

NASCAR driver Austin Dillon talks after winning the Daytona 500 in the No. 3 car, 20 years after he was in victory lane with Dale Earnhardt Sr.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBubqROTD44

NASCAR.com's Jonathan Merryman brings you up to speed on Austin Dillon's special relationship with Jordan Wade, the 11-year-old who gave him a lucky penny before the Daytona 500.

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Dillon seeks reunion with young fan who gave him lucky penny

Sunday, 18 February 2018


By Kelly Crandall / Image by Whitton/LAT


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Twenty years after the No.3 Chevrolet pulled into Victory Lane in the Daytona 500, it returned Sunday night. The driver who climbed out was not the same. The sponsors, crew chief, and other variables were also different.

One thing was the same, however. No, not just the team, Richard Childress Racing.

A penny on the dash.

Last weekend, Dillon came across a young fan during an autograph session for the Clash. Dillon doesn't think he or those he was with knew much about racing, but Dillon noticed they were enjoying themselves.


"Funny thing is, he had a white Ford hat on. I said, man, you got to take that off," Dillon recalled. "I signed my hat, gave it to him and said, 'Now look, I got to be your favorite driver, right?' He was like, 'All right. Cool. I got you now.'
"He was probably seven, eight years old, about the same age I would have been 20 years ago. The next day he had my hat on, and I was walking through the garage, and I saw him at the fence, and he yelled at me. I turned and ... walked over to him and he was like, 'Hey, I got this for you.' It was a lucky penny. Put it in the car, and it's sitting on the dash right now. It's pretty special."


For those who don't remember, Dale Earnhardt Sr. had what he called a lucky penny glued to the dashboard when he won his first and only Daytona 500. Earnhardt had come into possession of it before the '98 race when six-year-old Wessa Miller gave it to him, saying it would help him finally win the race that had eluded him.


Also in Victory Lane that day? Austin Dillon. Earnhardt, of course, drove for Dillon's grandfather, Richard Childress.

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Wallace caps Daytona week with emotional second place

Sunday, 18 February 2018


By Kelly Crandall (words and image)


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Richard Petty couldn't find his driver.

Power-walking down pit road at Daytona International Speedway, the team owner was looking for Darrell Wallace Jr., who had just finished second in the Daytona 500. Signature cowboy hat in place but with the sunglasses pulled down, there was a gleam in Petty's eyes as he was clearly overjoyed and high-fived No.43 crewmembers that walked by.
"Where's our racer?" he asked.

Eventually, Petty turned back around and made the walk to the infield care center since Wallace had to be evaluated after a crash with Denny Hamlin past the start-finish line. Wallace was released uninjured and thus began the media interviews.


"Whoop, whoop," Wallace said when he was introduced as the Daytona 500 runner-up in the media center.
Suddenly, Wallace's mother, Desiree, came into the media center and made her way to the stage. The two embraced and broke down as Desiree told Wallace how proud she was and how long he'd waited for the opportunity. In response, Wallace cracked she was acting like he'd won the race.

Wallace's older sister Brittany also got a hug in. And then Wallace couldn't help but sob and be choked up as he answered what it meant to accomplish what he did. Not only was Sunday a career-best finish for Wallace in his fifth start, but Wallace became the highest-finishing African American in the Daytona 500 history, besting the mark set by NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott (13th) in 1966.


"It's a sensitive subject but just so emotional over where my family has been the last two years that I don't talk about, but it's just so hard. So, having them here to support me is ..." Wallace trailed off as he tried to contain himself.


"I just try so hard to be successful at everything that I do and my family pushes me each and every day, and they might not even know it. I just want to make them proud. Second [place] is horrible, but still a good day. I just love my family and having everybody here from my mom, my sister, my uncle, everybody here just means a lot."


The finish was the cap of an already out-of-body day for Wallace. Before the race, Wallace was not only followed on Twitter by Formula 1 great Lewis Hamilton, but received an encouraging tweet. It led to a fan-girl moment, Wallace admitted.

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Then, before Wallace climbed into his racecar, team co-owner Andrew Murstein handed the phone to Wallace with baseball legend Hank Aaron on the other end. More good luck was sent Wallace's way. "There were a lot of close calls out there on the racetrack in just getting experience in my first Daytona 500," Wallace admitted. "We wanted to do two things. We wanted to run a lot of laps and not wreck the car. We came home with one of those. We ran all the laps and got wrecked there at the end. But, that's part of it.
"When you put that aside, what an unforgettable week and a half it's been. Being followed by cameras every day 24/7 for the last three months. Just dealing with that, there was a lot of stress. But I think it's produced great content for my show, 'Behind the Wall with Bubba Wallace.' You can check that out on Facebook Watch. I love coming to Daytona. It's not my favorite track, just because of the circumstances and what happens."


Finishing second did not come by chance. Wallace had a competitive car and ran hard throughout Sunday's event, even contending for the race lead during the first stage. When chaos broke out through the middle portion of the day, Wallace said he played it safe to save his car.
And save Wallace did in the move of the race.


Wallace was running just outside the top 10 when a multi-car crash occurred in Turn 2 with two laps to go. Sliding sideways on the apron and banking, throwing sparks, Wallace managed to avoid any contact to stay in contention for the win.

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Crash ends Danica Patrick's Daytona farewell

Sunday, 18 February 2018


Kelly Crandall / Image by Thacker/LAT


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A multi-car wreck on Lap 101 of the Daytona 500 brought an end to Danica Patrick's career in NASCAR.

Patrick's No.7 Chevrolet suffered heavy front-end damage when a crash broke out in Turn 3 of the 60th annual event. Close contact at the front of the field between Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski triggered the accident with Patrick among seven drivers being swept up.
"The car was a lot better than it was in the Duel, so Tony Eury Jr., my crew chief, did an awesome job," Patrick said after being released from the infield care center. "The whole team did a really good job. I know we pulled this together not that long ago and that's a tall order to get a car ready for a superspeedway that's competitive – but it was.
"I said earlier today that I feel like the whole thing was picture perfect with GoDaddy on the car and being green again. But it just wasn't meant to be, I guess, today."

Patrick said she was proud of how strongly her Premium Motorsports team had raced until her accident.
"It was competitive, so that's all you can do," she said. "That's the gamble about Daytona. It could go so well and it could go so awful. I'm grateful for everything. Thank you to all the fans...and, yeah, still got one more. It's not a stock car, but still got one more."
Sunday was Patrick's 191st race in NASCAR and scheduled to be her last after announcing her plans to retire from motorsports this season. The last event she will compete in will be the Indianapolis 500 in May.
In five full seasons at the Cup Series level, Patrick finished a career-best 24th in points with seven career top-10 finishes. In 2013, she became the first female to win a pole in the premier series at the Daytona 500, in addition to the first female to lead laps in the event while earning the highest finish for a female (eighth).
Patrick made her NASCAR national series debut in 2010 in the Xfinity Series.

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[h=2]Danica's legacy? It's complicated[/h] Tuesday, 20 February 2018


By Kelly Crandall / Images by Kinrade/LAT & Levitt/LAT


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My sister hates racing. She can play soccer with the best of them, manage an NHL team from her living room, and has a comfortable life of associating with guy friends over worrying about clothes and cocktails.
But racing? If she's not making a comparison to watching cereal float around a toilet bowl, then she's trying to get someone to change the channel.
Here's the kicker: my sister would ask how Danica Patrick was doing.
It is complicated and yet perfect at the same time, because that's what Patrick's NASCAR legacy is: complicated.
Classified 35th in the Daytona 500 after being involved in one of the many big accidents, Patrick has officially exited NASCAR stage left. For those who believe Patrick's career was full of bad luck, it was fitting that the end came through being caught up in an incident not of her own doing.
Alternatively, it was just another unremarkable day for a driver who, when came to on-track performance at least, did unremarkable things during her five full NASCAR seasons.
No wins and just seven top-10 finishes. Sixty-four laps led in 191 starts. Never finished higher than 24th in points.
Although Patrick went out with a whimper, she came in with a bang. Patrick became the first female to win a pole in NASCAR's premier series when she topped the board for the 2013 Daytona 500 (pictured above). She is also the only woman to lead laps in the Daytona 500 (also in 2013), and with an eighth-place effort (yes, in 2013), the highest-finishing female.
Analyzing her overall body of work in the sport, those Cup numbers, as well as 61 Xfinity Series starts with seven top-10s, one top five and one pole, you might ask, what did she really do? For all the fanfare and media attention that constantly enveloped Patrick, there was little that warranted it when it came down to the business of delivering on track.
"What I came to [realize] in the end was, I'm honored there was disappointment," said Patrick in a recent ESPN story. "I'm disappointed because it meant you expected more, and I did too, right? You saw me through my eyes. You saw the potential. You hoped for what I hoped for and believed it was possible."
Yet as one of the world's most recognizable athletes, Patrick did make an impact in NASCAR. See, I told you it was complicated.
Saluting Patrick ahead of her final race in the driver/crew chief meeting this past Sunday, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O'Donnell also used the word 'impact'. You hear that same word associated with her name all through the garage, and in the press.
Since the first NASCAR national series race that Patrick ran in 2010, there have been eyeballs on her, and subsequently on the sport. Plus, she brought a pre-established fan base with her from IndyCar; fans who were going to watch her regardless of what she drove.
Over time, however, Patrick became a role model and a superstar for NASCAR's younger fans, and undoubtedly for little girls. When making my way down pit road before a race, I knew I could count on seeing young girls standing by Patrick's car. They just wanted to see the No.10, and perhaps even be lucky enough to get a glimpse of the driver. Those who did would smile as if at Disney World. And the young fans, boy or girl, who were ever lucky enough to come across Patrick in the garage or at an appearance, had their day made by getting a hug.

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Jimmie Johnson
Johnson is just one of many who have taken to social media to express what Patrick has meant to them and motorsports. NASCAR president Brent Dewar responded to Patrick's goodbye tweet with, "Thank you Danica!!"

"NASCAR's most successful female" is how Mike Joy repeatedly referred to Patrick during Speedweeks. And Daytona 500 honorary starter, actress Charlize Theron, provided an idea of how Patrick has been an attraction outside of the racing world.
She's incredible, and to have her be part of this, as a woman, that just seems pretty incredible," Theron said. "For me to be able to witness her last race, that feels very special to be here today, too. The girl in me secretly is, obviously, cheering for her as well.
"I just love that even my kids were really impressed that a girl was racing cars today, too. They think that's such a good thing, and we need more of that, and hopefully, we'll have more of that enter this culture, which only makes it better and richer."


My sister may not have been converted to a die-hard race fan because of Patrick, but Patrick made her aware enough to pay attention when a race was on – and even buy a Patrick hat at one point. Just last year she asked me to get her to a race to experience the garage area, and one of her first stops was Patrick's hauler and car.
Now that Patrick is gone, what she did or didn't do on the track will be forgotten by many. But my sister and everyone like her will remember that she was here.

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Hamlin, Wallace get heated after Daytona finish

Wednesday, 21 February 2018


By Kelly Crandall / image by Whitton/LAT


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Denny Hamlin took to Twitter late Tuesday to explain a post-Daytona 500 confrontation between him and Darrell Wallace Jr., set off by the two crashing just past the start-finish line in a battle for second.

The explanation came after a video surfaced of the two drivers in a heated exchanged outside the media center. Hamlin, who finished third after Wallace nipped him at the finish, was on his way out of the media center when he encountered Wallace, who was on his way in after being cleared from the infield care center. The two exchanged words for a few seconds before they were led in different directions.
Both drivers saw the finish line incident differently.
According to Hamlin, he cut down a tire after contact with Wallace late in the race:

"What Bubba said" came in Wallace's post-race TV interview with Fox, when he took a shot at Hamlin by saying "he might need to take some Adderall for that one."
The reference was a dig at Hamlin for a Barstool Sports podcast he did in the days before the 500. After being asked if NASCAR drivers were drug tested, Hamlin was goaded into estimating how many drivers he believed were on Adderall to help with focus, and Hamlin threw out 70 percent. He later said he was joking.
"It looked kind of like the same move he pulled on Ryan [Blaney] at Martinsville if I remember correctly last year with that mayhem," Wallace said after the race. "If that happened, OK, so be it, but it just seems like he got off of me a little bit and then back into me. I know the cars drive crazy, and whatnot and they're a handful, but it just didn't seem like that right away, but it was tough to see from that angle anyways.
"Who knows. We're both pissed off at each other. But we're racers. We're competitive, and we'll go into Atlanta and be fine. I might be kicked out of the basketball league [Hamlin has], but whatever. And golf league, too."
On Tuesday night, Hamlin ended his explanation by saying, "Anyone who wouldn’t take offense to the stupid things that was said has absolutely no backbone. I have one."

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"What Bubba said" came in Wallace's post-race TV interview with Fox, when he took a shot at Hamlin by saying "he might need to take some Adderall for that one."


The reference was a dig at Hamlin for a Barstool Sports podcast he did in the days before the 500. After being asked if NASCAR drivers were drug tested, Hamlin was goaded into estimating how many drivers he believed were on Adderall to help with focus, and Hamlin threw out 70 percent. He later said he was joking.


"It looked kind of like the same move he pulled on Ryan [Blaney] at Martinsville if I remember correctly last year with that mayhem," Wallace said after the race. "If that happened, OK, so be it, but it just seems like he got off of me a little bit and then back into me. I know the cars drive crazy, and whatnot and they're a handful, but it just didn't seem like that right away, but it was tough to see from that angle anyways.


"Who knows. We're both pissed off at each other. But we're racers. We're competitive, and we'll go into Atlanta and be fine. I might be kicked out of the basketball league [Hamlin has], but whatever. And golf league, too."
On Tuesday night, Hamlin ended his explanation by saying, "Anyone who wouldn’t take offense to the stupid things that was said has absolutely no backbone. I have one."