By Ryan - Posted on February 17, 2010
Although drivers and fans alike were frustrated over the 2 ½ hour red-flag delays while track workers attempted to fill potholes between Turns 1 and 2, the race didn’t disappoint at the end. More than 30 lead-lap cars tested NASCAR’s new green-white-checkers rule – that there would be three attempts at a clean finish using green-white-checkers – not just one try.
An accident involving Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler, and Travis Kvapil on lap 194 set up the various dashes to the finish. On Lap 199, with Greg Biffle leading and mere yards from his first Daytona championship, Bill Elliott, Joey Logano and Boris Said crashed. Then, the field could not make it to the white flag on a restart on Lap 203 because of a wreck involving Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Robert Richardson.
McMurray spun his tires on the final restart on lap 207, but Biffle gave him a push. McMurray led the final two laps, the fewest ever for a Daytona winner, but the sweetest two laps he ever led. He screamed to his crew as he crossed the finish line, “Thank you so much. I can’t believe we just won the Daytona 500!”
Just as big a story in this race was Dale Earnhardt Jr. after a terrifying-looking upside-down trek at the end of the Nationwide race on Saturday, everyone wondered if his bad luck from last year had followed him into this season. Junior was tenth at the final restart, and charged his way through the center of the lead pack to finish second, a mere 0.119 seconds behind McMurray. The move, and his words after the race, caused many to compare him to his famous father.
“I really don’t enjoy being that aggressive. But if there was enough room for the radiator to fit, you just kind of held the gas down and prayed for the best. It was a lot of fun.”
There were some surprises in the Top Ten. Behind Biffle in 3rd were Clint Boyer, David Reutiman, Martin Truex Hr., Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Juan Pablo Montoya. Noticeably absent were perennial speedway race favorites Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. Gordon finished 26th after his late wreck, and Jimmy Johnson exited the race early with axle damage and tire problems.
