Top 5 người chiến thắng daytona 500 năm 2022

Five thoughts after the Daytona 500 and the start of the NASCAR season…

1. Layers

Michael McDowell’s Daytona 500 victory will most be remembered for a journeyman racer breaking through on NASCAR’s biggest stage and providing a lesson for all of us in the process.

“Don’t give up,” McDowell said after ending an 0-for-357 start to his career. “That’s what it’s all about, is just not giving up and keep fighting hard. That’s not just the moral of my NASCAR journey, but that’s the moral of everyday life.”

But beyond the feel-good story of an underdog’s triumph, McDowell’s win early Monday morning will have reverberations that will be felt throughout NASCAR’s regular season.

Just like that, one playoff spot has already been snatched away — potentially from a big-team driver who is in the top 16 of the point standings. McDowell finished a career-high 23rd in points last season, and it would be a shocker to see him crack the top 20 when the first 26 races end. So that means a non-winner with a solid regular season will be out.

Last year, Cole Custer and Austin Dillon won races from outside the top 16 — and knocked out cars from Hendrick Motorsports [Jimmie Johnson] and Joe Gibbs Racing [Erik Jones] in the process. That’s the kind of scenario that could happen again.

But what if McDowell’s win is only the beginning? With an increased number of “wild-card” type races on the schedule — a dirt track and six road courses in the regular season, plus two more superspeedways — this could be a year where as many as four unexpected winners leapfrog some notable names.

This is already set to be a more unpredictable and intriguing season than most, based on the amount of new tracks and new driver/team combinations. In that sense, perhaps McDowell’s victory foreshadows more craziness.

What does that mean for powerhouse teams with high expectations? For one thing, they’d better not get off to a slow start. Getting caught in the Big One in the season opener is one thing, but a few DNFs in the first six weeks could be crushing for a team that hoped for better.

In the meantime, the one driver who can already relax and think about the playoffs? It’s not Kevin Harvick or Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch or Chase Elliott.

It’s Michael Christopher McDowell, the guy with more Daytona 500 wins than Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Busch combined.

Go figure. Welcome to the 2021 NASCAR season.

Michael McDowell, 2021 #Daytona500 champion. pic.twitter.com/0SPJgJJgzG
— Jeff Gluck [@jeff_gluck] February 15, 2021

2. Blame Game

When it comes to the finish of the Daytona 500, I don’t have any hot takes for you in this space.

Blame Joey Logano? Nah. It’s the last lap of NASCAR’s biggest race and he’s an expert at defending his position. Logano knew Brad Keselowski kept trying to back up to McDowell and get a run, so Logano tried to counter.

Perhaps his last defensive move was a half-second too late or he misjudged the degree of Keselowski’s boost, but it wasn’t aggressive or reckless. What was Logano supposed to do, just let Keselowski cruise on by and give a friendly “Congrats!” wave out the window?

Blame Keselowski? That’s absurd. He desperately wants to win the Daytona 500 and cement his legacy as one of NASCAR’s all-time great superspeedway racers. He certainly is deserving. Keselowski patiently waited until the last lap, finally saw his chance and went for it. Harvick said Keselowski had the best pusher behind him in McDowell and clearly wanted to go for the win on his own instead of working with the Ford group. But how can you find fault in that?

Take a look at the accident that brought out the caution flag at the end of the #DAYTONA500. pic.twitter.com/M7AUZJ1c1C
— NASCAR [@NASCAR] February 15, 2021

Blame McDowell? C’mon now. I’ve seen the tweets saying McDowell knocked Keselowski out of the way and that’s what started the crash. I don’t see it at all. McDowell had pushed Keselowski out ahead of him and they were no longer touching when Keselowski tried to take advantage of his surge and pass Logano. The only way McDowell got through the collision in front of him is because the No. 34 car wasn’t connected to the No. 2 at that moment. He did nothing wrong.

Blame NASCAR? The timing of a caution on the last lap of a superspeedway race is always under scrutiny, but I don’t have any objections to their calls here. NASCAR waited a moment to see if they could let the race play out, as they are wont to do, but then realized the explosive fireball behind McDowell and Chase Elliott required safety teams to be dispatched quickly instead of 10 seconds later. So they called the caution. No issues with that.

Everything we saw at the end of the race is a byproduct of what’s required to win in that situation. It takes boldness and bravery combined with next-level, chess-like thinking. Sometimes the split-second decisions made by drivers conflict with those made by their competitors.

And then they crash. It happens. No one did anything wrong or bad or dumb; the biggest factor was being drawn in by the tantalizing possibility of winning the Daytona 500 and gaining the immortality that comes with it.

3. Conga line

Let’s get this part out of the way: The excessive single-file racing during most of the Daytona 500 was a major disappointment. Unlike other recent races with the current superspeedway rules package, this one fell flat.

But why? What happened to create those circumstances?

“I’m not sure,” Elliott said. “I would love to know. Seemed like it was a bigger difference from top to bottom than normal, and I think that was why we were all scared to leave [the top].”

In reality, it was likely a combination of factors that can be traced back to the early pre-rain wreck that eliminated so many strong cars.

First, as Harvick noted, fewer cars means there’s not as much energy created by the pack to get the bottom lane going. Second, as Hamlin said, there were so few cars remaining that “everyone thinks they’ve got a chance no matter where they are.”

That meant the urgency wasn’t as high compared to knowing there’s a large pack that would make it more difficult to get to the front in a short amount of time. So everyone waited, thinking there would be a shot to win if they just survived until the last lap.

But that doesn’t mean it was satisfying.

“Selfishly speaking, I’m wondering, ‘What in the world? Why are we running in a single-file line crossing the white [flag]?’” Hamlin said. “Like 10th, 12th, eighth, sixth — are you just happy with that finish? Or do you want to go for it?”

The problem was, drivers had already figured out if they pulled out of line, it would only result in them dropping anchor and plummeting to the rear. Austin Dillon noticed even when he tried to help another car jump to the bottom, their line didn’t have enough momentum to do anything.

“It’s hard to be that guy to stick your neck out,” Dillon said.

Elliott kept trying to advance and make moves, but ultimately there was nothing he could do.

“I felt like my hands were tied,” he said. “I hate that. I’m not saying go overboard and crash everybody, but at least pull down and do a little something for the people watching.

“But it just wasn’t an option to better your result. So we didn’t.”

4. Fantastic Fox

Considering all the challenges posed with the weather, Fox had a strong debut to open the NASCAR season.

The pre-race show was compelling. Fox’s cameras were there for the first meeting between Michael Jordan and Bubba Wallace, which made their sit-down interview with Hamlin and Michael Strahan a must-watch.

You knew Tom Rinaldi was going to come up with a tearjerker piece, and sure enough, he brought out emotion from the oft-stoic Ryan Newman. Fox decided not to avoid Kyle Larson’s return to NASCAR following his racial slur, instead confronting it head-on via Larson’s interview with Emmanuel Acho [of “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” fame].

It was great to see Chris Myers back on the broadcast with hosting duties and Fox struck a good balance by bringing in its Charlotte studio as well. The cardboard Michael Waltrip for the Grid Walk seemed like a little much, but that whole segment seems to revel in its cringeworthy humor — and, believe it or not, it has a solid segment of fans who love it.

As for the booth, we had high expectations for Clint Bowyer; it seemed he delivered. The freshness of the new combination kept the energy going even after the long rain delay [which, by the way, had the perfect rain fill with the captivating “Days of Thunder” documentary]. Although every time Jeff Gordon said “Bubba Wallace Jr.,” it was like nails on a chalkboard [it’s either Bubba Wallace or Darrell Wallace Jr., but not Bubba Wallace Jr.].

Anyway, no broadcast is ever perfect. But from what I saw, Fox did a nice job with the hand it was dealt. [Full disclosure: I saw complaints about commercials, but I didn’t see those while at the track so I don’t have a sense of how much that affected the viewing.]

5. COVID sense

This year was the first time McDowell’s family wasn’t with him in Daytona. Even though he was wearing a mask for interviews, you could see enough of his face to tell his family’s absence caused him some heartache on the day of his biggest career achievement.

Imagine finally reaching your lifelong dream and none of your loved ones are there to share the moment with you. It seemed to rob him of some joy, which is a shame.

That’s quite a contrast from the Super Bowl, when families from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came down to the field afterward and celebrated with the winning players. Tom Brady posed for photos with his wife and children and shared a touching moment.

But even if McDowell’s family had physically been at the racetrack, they wouldn’t have been in victory lane. Children weren’t allowed in the infield all week, though drivers’ significant others were permitted to stay with them in the motorhome lot.

Before we go further, it’s certainly worth noting NASCAR has consulted with several experts to develop its comprehensive COVID-19 plan and protocols. Clearly, I’m not an expert. But I have to wonder about the logic of it all.

Here’s why: Though drivers’ children couldn’t enter the infield, they were allowed to watch races in a NASCAR suite, mixing with other families in an enclosed indoor space for hours at a time.

Wives and kids mingled in the hallways outside the suites, having far more interaction than they would have in the infield motorhome lot — where they would have been mostly confined to their own spaces.

After the race, where do you think those wives and children went? To fly home on airplanes with the supposedly isolated drivers, of course. So all the potential exposure from families watching in a suite with people outside their circle was turned right back around to the drivers — instead of just letting them watch in their homes away from home in the infield.

How exactly does that make sense?

It would be one thing if NASCAR maintained a strict bubble for the drivers, but that wasn’t the case. Wives were not allowed to be on pit road before the race, but celebrities were. Look no further than social media, which documented pre-race performer Luke Combs making his rounds to several different drivers.

Since we’re in a weather delay, how about a few of these two. 🤘✌️ @Columbia1938 pic.twitter.com/G0psuHGzoW
— 23XI Racing [@23XIRacing] February 14, 2021

You can understand why drivers and their wives would be confused about the mixed messages there. Celebrities can spread COVID-19 just as easily as drivers’ families can. So either let everyone in — or no one at all.

Add crew members to the list, too; they weren’t allowed to celebrate with McDowell in victory lane aside from getting close to a fence.

“You hate it for the team guys,” Hamlin said. “Like they should be by the car. Hell, they’re all in the bubble. When you win the Super Bowl, everyone was out on the field. What’s the damn difference?”

Perhaps one difference is NASCAR still isn’t mandating COVID-19 testing for competitors. NASCAR at one time was the leader among sports leagues, getting the season restarted before anyone else; now it lags behind seemingly every other major sport — all of which test frequently and report their numbers.

Unlike May, when testing wasn’t widespread and had to be preserved for frontline workers, NASCAR’s mixed-message policy is hard to justify now. If it doesn’t plan to test, then fine. The goal seems to be to get the races in without attracting negative attention of wary states who are skeptical about hosting races.

But if that’s the case, don’t bother drivers’ families with the show of a “bubble” when it’s not really one at all.

[Top photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images]

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