Exhilarating Daytona Speedweeks Marred by Final Lap Crash in the Daytona 500

Anticipation mounted going into the 2020 Daytona Speedweeks. With one of the busiest silly seasons the organizations has seen in a very long time, a large group of rookies in all three touring series, the new superspeedway package in the Cup Series, the celebration of Jimmie Johnson's final season, and the start of a new decade, NASCAR was primed to have one of the best weeks it had in a long time. Unfortunately, this excitement was cut short in the final 500 feet of racing that took place in Daytona this week.

ARCA

Well... the ARCA race started off as you would expect. An avoidable first lap crash from the 02 car trying to find a place within the inside line of cars was almost a serious crash as drivers refused to slow down as the 02 car spun back up the track in turn 3. With that said, the drivers minded their manners for the majority of the rest of the race. Hailie Deegan, a potential future NASCAR superstar misjudged a bump draft coming out of turn 2 causing a single-car crash to set up the race's final restart. Michael Self held off Hailie Deegan for the win, but Deegan certainly took over the race's headlines with her 2nd-place finish.

The Clash

Oh boy, where do I even start with this. While it was rated the best Clash out of the three Jeff Gluck has polled on, it was certainly not great. The first 60 laps of the race were defined by drivers riding around as if it were a glorified test session. Between laps 60 and 65, the drivers began racing, but Joey Logano throws a block which causes the first incident of the race. The ensuing restart was... something. From the on-board cameras, it appeared as though oil was left on the track in the tri-oval leading to half of the field receiving race-ending damage before even getting to the start/finish line. The next wreck essentially took the rest of the field out as Denny Hamlin blew a tire while leading. Unfortunately, this crash took out Jimmie Johnson who was likely running his final Clash. After a couple more incidents that somehow wrecked even more cars, Erik Jones, "in a car that [was] ready for the dumpster," dragged his car to the win with help from Denny Hamlin, who was miraculously still in the race. It's safe to say that it's hard to make fun of any other racing series after "18 of the world's best drivers" put on a performance like that.

The Duels

The Daytona Duels held Thursday night were likely the most tame parts of the weekend. The biggest controversy came from how Daniel Suarez and Gaunt Brothers Racing were taken out of the Daytona 500 from Ford pit strategy shenanigans. The Ford teams (including Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing, and Roush Fenway Racing) were communicating via instant messaging with spotty internet service. Suarez was being lapped by the train of Fords that hadn't pitted yet. In a series of poor communications seemingly caused by failure of the instant messaging service, the Fords began pitting while Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney were splitting Suarez 3-wide, which essentially caused Suarez to be squeezed in between the two cars and turned head-on into the outside wall. Suarez was obviously upset, as was most of the NASCAR fan base. This incident added to a long list of episodes of "Penske Ruins Everything." Otherwise, the races were good, but uneventful. Joey Logano and William Byron won their duel races, and Reed Sorenson and Timmy Hill were the final drivers to qualify for the big race. The Chevys proved they had more than just single-car speed, Denny Hamlin was guaranteed to be a contender, and the Fords essentially picked up where they left off last year. These races created palpable anticipation for the Daytona 500.

Trucks

The Truck race didn't get off to a great start as Ty Majeski turned over onto his roof in turn 1 just 15 laps into the race. Fortunately, the truck didn't take and serious hits with other trucks or the wall, and Majeski was okay. The trucks were very unstable, but the drivers were able to hold onto them for the most part with the exception of a couple of slides off turn 4 that didn't result in a caution. An incident with 3 laps to go took out most of the field leaving some underfunded teams with a shot at an unbelievable upset. Jordan Anderson stepped up to plate, but fell just short finishing behind Grant Enfinger in a thrilling photo finish. In his post-race interview though, you wouldn't have even known Anderson lost the race; definitely the most elated 2nd-place finisher I've seen.

Xfinity

To put it simply, the Xfinity race on Saturday was rather standard with the biggest storyline being Kaulig Racing having to buy Ross Chastain a ride into the race after brake problems kept him from qualifying for the race. Another storyline is that up-and-comers Riley Herbst and Harrison Burton have been given opportunities of their lifetimes at Joe Gibbs Racing to race the full season in the best equipment in the series. This race had an old Daytona vibe to it: the incidents didn't involve very many car and the field became spread out as handling and pit strategy came into play. An incident with about 13 laps to go changed the complexion of the race as the field was bunched up for the finish. Unfortunately, this lead to the dreaded big crash that took out many of the strongest cars in the race. Noah Gragson emerged victorious for the first time in the series when the caution was thrown on the last lap for Michael Annett taking "the hardest hit of [his] career." This is something I'm going to touch base on later.

Cup

So after all of these races, this is the moment, this is the day: Sunday, February 16, 2020. The biggest race of the year to kick off the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season. After the pre-race ceremonies, featuring President Trump, the cars rolled out onto the track only to come back in for rain. Then they were able to start racing a short time later ...for 20 laps... before it rained again, and this time forcing NASCAR to have to postpone the race. All the hype and anticipation would have to wait until Monday afternoon. 

If I have to be honest, I enjoyed all but the final lap of this race. It wasn't a complete wreckfest, and the entire race wasn't a single-file train (although bits and pieces of the race did exhibit this, it wasn't particularly annoying). With 15 to 20 cars left in contention at the final restart, it was still anyone's race. Although, out of the people left, the favorites were Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Newman. Going into turn 1 on the final lap, Chase Elliott spun trying to find a place in the outside line. At the same time, Denny Hamlin had amassed way too big of a lead exiting turn 2 allowing for Newman and Blaney to move into 1st and 2nd respectively by the time they were in turn 3. Coming off of turn 4, Blaney had backed up to Hamlin to try and get a run on Newman. Newman blocked Blaney high, then low. At this point Blaney was only able to push Newman, but the bumpers caught wrong, sending Newman into the outside wall. His car flew into the air only to be hit by Corey Lajoie, who couldn't see anything through the smoke. Unfortunately, Newman suffered serious injuries, but they are presumed to be not life-threatening. Through all of the chaos, Denny Hamlin won his 3rd Daytona 500 in the second closest Daytona 500 finish, and the first driver to win in consecutive years since the mid 1990s.

My Thoughts

Certainly the events that transpired at the finish of the Daytona 500 were a lot to process. In all honesty, Newman's wreck was the worst wreck I had ever seen live in a NASCAR race. While I wasn't remotely old enough when Dale Earnhardt's crash happened, the attitude of the commentators was eerily similar to the 2001 Daytona 500 coverage I've seen. It's an absolute miracle that Newman only received serious, but non-life-threatening injuries. Apart from Ryan Newman and his family, I also feel absolutely gutted for both Ryan Blaney and Corey Lajoie who both looked visibly distressed after the incident, particularly Blaney, who Newman spun off the front bumper of. There are certainly discussions that need to be had in regards to the culture around wrecks in NASCAR. While the safety innovations NASCAR has produced since 2001 have been phenomenal (likely saving Ryan Newman's life), we cannot take those for granted like we as fans currently do and like the administration of the organization currently does. Just because drivers continue to survive these horrific crashes doesn't mean that we need to continue to glorify them. Again, this is just how I view this situation. Like Ryan Newman has said before, "if you come here to see [those kinds of wrecks], then you don't belong here."

UPDATE: Ryan Newman has been released from, and walked out of, the hospital just 42 hours after his horrific crash. As cliché as it sounds, this is nothing short of a miracle. Also, there was a fantastic article that was written on Racing Reference that I think everyone should take the time to read: https://www.racing-reference.info/showblog?id=3618.