McMurray Wins the Daytona 500 |
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| McMurray celebrates his fourth career win. |
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Complete Results | Photos
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla - Exciting racing, controversy, a thrilling finish and a driver in victory lane for the first time as a member of the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops race team.
Sunday's 52nd running of the Daytona 500 had it all and in the end Jamie McMurray was standing in victory lane after scoring an exciting victory in Sunday's first race of the Sprint Cup Series season.
McMurray held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the second green-white-checkered finish attempt to notch his fourth career win in his return with owners Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates. McMurray’s first win came back in 2002 with Ganassi in just his second career start,
McMurray's win was his third career restrictor plate triumph and second straight after he took the checkered flag as a member of the Roush Fenway Racing team last November at Talladega Superspeedway.
Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann rounded out the top five.
Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Juan Pablo Montoya completed the first ten finishers.
The race set a Daytona 500 record with 21 different leaders and 52 lead changes.
The race was slowed twice for two length red flags when the track surface came apart between turns one and two. A large hole began to form just past the race's halfway point and it worsened to a point that NASCAR was forced to stop the race and attempt to repair the damage.
After an hour and forty four minute delay racing resumed but the problem reappeared again later and another red flag was necessitated.
“It seemed we may have hit that hole down there and did some damage to the tire and then the tire blew,” said Jimmie Johnson, who had the unfortunate experience of hitting the hole twice. “We wish we didn’t hit the hole. We lost all the track position.”
The combination of the heavy rains that have engulfed the Daytona Beach area this week as well as the unseasonably cool temperatures were pointed to as the reasons for the track decay.
“The combination of the moisture and the cold temperatures, the normal solutions you normally use to patch the track are not working,” NASCAR Chairman Brian France said on the Fox telecast. “But we’re actually turning the corner. We’re on our third different solution. … We will get it solved in the midst of probably our best Daytona 500 in a long, long time.”
The track, which hasn't been paved since 1978, could be resurfaced in the near future however track president Robin Braig said a decision has not been made.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to Auto Club Speedway next Sunday afternoon. |
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