No it wasn't the champ Jimmie Johnson, either the drive for hunger Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. Either it was the new Kyle or the incoming from 2010 Chase Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. It wasn't Kevin Harvick or Tony Stewart either Kurt Busch's momentum from Gatorade Duel and Shootout.It was Cinderella Trevor Bayne driving the magic David Pearson's No. 21 car for Wood Brothers who won the famous Daytona 500 in his first ever attempt and became the younger winner of the event. Morerover, by winning in his second start in the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne tied Jamie McMurray for quickest victory at the start of a career.
It was the 98th victory for Wood Brothers and rookie winner Bayne commented:
“I keep thinking I’m dreaming. We prayed before the race. We do that a lot. This just shows how powerful God is. To win our first 500 in our second-ever Cup race. And how cool is it to see the Wood brothers back in victory lane? To win on this kind of platform is incredible.”
Nevertheless it wasn't an easy victory for Bayne who was racing 2nd behind David Ragan in the final laps before the first green-white-checkered attempt. Unfortunately, race leader David Ragan was blackflagged by NASCAR for dropping from the outside lane to the inside lane to move in front of drafting partner Bayne before they reached the start-finish line. That cost Ragan a shot at the victory. Yet, a few seconds later, a major accident developed on the backstretch among the leaders, halting the first green-white-checkered run. AJ Allmendinger hit Ryan Newman, sparking a multi-car crash and setting up the second green-white-checkered.
Bayne led that one all the way, pushed by Bobby Labonte, then stayed low on the track through the trioval for the final time to hold off the drafting pairs of Carl Edwards/David Gilliland and Kurt Busch/Juan Pablo Montoya who were running after them.
In the end, Edwards finished second by .11 of a second. Gilliland took third while former Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte scored a surprising fourth, and Kurt Busch was fifth.
It was another wild Daytona 500 that included lots of caution periods, two-car drafting, protecting engines and fuel-only, super-fast pit stops. Tires lasted so long on Daytona’s new surface that most of pit road’s tire changers could have stayed at home.
The race ended with 16 caution periods, easily a Daytona 500 record, and 74 lead changes, also a record.
The Big One, as huge Daytona/Talladega wrecks are known, occurred early, collecting 14 cars in the turn-four vicinity. The accident began in the middle of the pack as Michael Waltrip, who had been drafting with his teammate/employee David Reutimann, tapped Reutimann in the rear and sent him spinning.
Cars scattered around trying to avoid the chaos, but that mostly didn’t work. Cars involved included those of Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.
When the smoke cleared, the pool of drivers still eligible to win the season’s biggest race had been trimmed considerably. And it resulted in some unusual names – Terry Labonte, Dave Blaney, Paul Menard, Robby Gordon, Regan Smith – leading laps.
