Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart retired from competition as a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver having never won the Daytona 500 in 18 tries. On Sunday, one of his drivers, Kurt Busch, took the lead on the final lap of the 2017 season-opener and finally won NASCAR's biggest race in his 17th attempt. The final lap was the only lap of the 200 that made up the race that Busch led.
"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 win. The more unpredictability that keeps unfolding at the Daytona 500, I predicted it. 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."
Ryan Blaney finished second, A.J. Allmendinger was third, Aric Almirola fourth, and Paul Menard rounded out the top-five.
"It's a good finish," Menard said. "It was exciting. We were right in the middle of half of the crashes. Got a little bit of right-rear damage early, but the guys fixed it. [Matt] Borland [crew chief] made a really good call to short-pit for some fuel, so we didn't have to take as much fuel at the end. We were on pretty old tires, and I couldn't run the bottom very well. Those guys were coming on the bottom at the end. I was kind of tentative to get down there. Ran out of fuel out of turn two. I just nursed it home. I am just really proud of my guys on my Menards Chevrolet."
Pole sitter Chase Elliott took the lead for the final time with 24 laps remaining but ran out of fuel with three laps to go and wound up outside the top-10 at the finish. When Elliott ran out of fuel, Martin Truex Jr. moved into the race lead, but he quickly gave way to Kyle Larson. Larson, too, ran out of fuel, allowing Busch to take the lead on the final lap.
Finishing the race sixth through 10th were Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip, Matt DiBenedetto and Trevor Bayne.
"It's going to be a great memory, you know, to have a top-10," Waltrip said at the end of his final race. "I had so many times I was in the middle of a crash and just missed it. So, you do a good job and you get lucky, both. At the end, I just lost the draft and that is unfortunate, because I was able to weave my way past people. I had a really, really good-handling car. I'm thankful that I survived, and I'm thankful for being able to run up front, and I'm happy about the finish. I'm ready for it to be my last one, so it's going to be a good one to remember it by."
The final stage of the race, an 80-lap third stage, was attrition-filled, and front-runners weren't immune. Hendrick Motorsports drivers Elliott, Jimmie Johnson and Kahne ran up front in the early laps in the third stage before a 16-car wreck that began with contact between Johnson and Jamie McMurray sent Johnson around, ultimately ending his race on lap 128.
"They started running into the back of me off of turn two and didn't stop until I crashed an took out the field," Johnson said. "I don't know what was going on with the pack behind me, but the whole back straightaway, I had, I think the #6 [Bayne] into the back of me. I was just praying that they would let me go and let me get my rear tires back on the ground and it never happened. Just a lot of aggression way too early, in my opinion."
Two more wrecks that, combined, collected over a dozen cars came in close succession. With only 50 laps remaining, only five cars of the 40 that started the race hadn't sustained at least minor crash damage — the #3 of Austin Dillon, the #5 of Kahne, the #15 of Waltrip, the #43 of Almirola and the #47 of Allmendinger.
The debut of NASCAR's new stage format resulted in varying pit strategies in the first two stages, organized mostly by manufacturer. With the stages at Daytona longer than a fuel run, most Toyotas pitted early in the first two stages, Fords, for the most part, split the two 60-lap stages in half, and Chevrolet teams stuck to a more traditional strategy of running the approximate length of a fuel run.
The Toyota strategy paid off for Kyle Busch in the opening stage, propelling him to the honor of being the first stage winner in the Cup Series under the new format.
After Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the front row and McMurray led a handful of laps early, Kevin Harvick took the lead on lap 18. He and othee Ford drivers, including his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, were on pit road when Corey LaJoie caused the first caution on lap 29 when he had difficulty slowing down to pit. When others pitted under yellow, Harvick cycled back to the lead for the restart. He gave up the lead to Busch on lap 42.
The early pitting strategy didn't work out as well for Busch and a handful of other drivers in stage two, though. After Toyota stops, Busch, Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones were trying to stay on the lead lap in front of leader Earnhardt on lap 105 when Busch cut a right-rear tire that sent him into a spin, collecting Jones, Kenseth, Earnhardt and Ty Dillon. The race was red-flagged, and Busch and Earnhardt headed to the garage, retired from the race.
"I wished I would've [had any indication of a tire issue]," Busch said. "If I would've, I would've tried to wave off as many guys behind me as I could, but it happened just as soon as we started picking up laod into turn three. Just spun around, and you know, it actually felt like I hung onto it for a long ways and then finally went. I don't know if it was a left-rear that went down or the right that went down but, man, tore up three JGR [Joe Gibbs Racing] cars in one hit and also Jr. So I feel bad, horrible, for those guys, but, man, nothing that we did wrong. You know, obviously, Goodyear tires just aren't very good at holding air. It's very frustrating when we have that down here every single year we've been here. Last year, we had it as well, too."
After the 16.5-minute green flag, the race restarted with Fords in nine of the top-10 spots in the running order, led by Harvick. Joey Logano got up to second on the restart, but Harvick was able to hold him off to claim the stage two win.
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