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Jimmy Johnson takes
the checkered flag in the 55th running of the Daytona 500.
Nascar.com
Johnson holds
off Dale Jr. for Daytona 500 win
DAYTONA, FLA.- Jimmie Johnson emerged from the pack after a tense
restart with six laps left to win the 55th Daytona 500 on Sunday at
Daytona International Speedway.
Johnson, who also won the Great American Race in 2006, held off
Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the finish. Mark
Martin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman completed the top five.
Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first woman to lead a
green-flag lap in NASCAR's premier series but wound up just short with
an eighth-place finish.
Johnson's second 500 win came in his milestone 400th start in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He joined NASCAR Hall of Famers David
Pearson, Lee Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Dave Marcis as drivers who
prevailed in start No. 400 in stock-car racing's top level.
Patrick started from the pole position but dropped to second place
behind Jeff Gordon before the first lap of the race was halfway
complete. She dropped back to the fringes of the top 10 after a slow
early pit stop, but jumped to the top of the leaderboard with quick
service from her crew before the third restart.
From there, she held off Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer at the
start-finish line to lead the 90th and 91st laps. She moved back to the
lead in the 127th lap after Kenseth made a scheduled pit stop, then led
through the 129th lap until making her own stop for service.
Her total of five laps led tied Janet Guthrie's career mark for a woman
in Sprint Cup competition. Guthrie led all five of her laps during a
caution period at now-defunct Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway in 1977.
Joe Gibbs Racing showed its strength in the late going, running 1-2-3
until two top contenders retired with mechanical issues within two laps
of each other just past the three-quarter mark of the 200-lap race.
Kenseth, who led a race-high 86 laps, was the first to fall out with an
apparent transmission or engine problem in the 150th lap; Kyle Busch
followed suit on Lap 152 with engine failure, leaving Denny Hamlin as
the lone JGR Toyota to contend for the win.
"It's just frustrating," Busch said. "You come down here and you have
such fast race cars. All the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing built us awesome
pieces. We're running 1-2-3 there and it felt like we were dropping
like flies."
Another handful of pre-race favorites dropped from contention after an
early nine-car crash, triggered when Busch shoved Kasey Kahne into a
spin just past the start-finish line in the 32nd lap. The melee
collected Kevin Harvick -- the winner of the Sprint Unlimited and
Budweiser Duel preliminaries -- and Tony Stewart, a four-time winner at
Daytona, but never in the 500.
"I was kind of right in the middle of the race track, and it closed the
door on us," Stewart said. "… If I didn't tell y'all I'm disappointed
and heartbroken, I'd be lying to you."
Busch accepted blame as he radioed his crew during the caution period,
but Kahne seemed to absolve him, saying that he hit the brakes when
teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon slowed ahead of him. By the
time it was over, defending Sprint Cup champ Keselowski, Casey Mears,
Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch were also involved.
"Oh, it's crazy. I can't believe it," Kahne said of his early exit. "I
mean, I wanted to race. I didn't want to run single-file by the wall.
That's what we were doing and you still got caught in something. I
really don't know how it happened like that. I understand how that
happens but it's restrictor-plate racing and anything can happen here."
Another multicar wreck in the 137th lap snared 2011 Daytona 500 champ
Trevor Bayne, Carl Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., David Gilliland and
David Ragan. Keselowski slid through the first turn after contact with
Bayne but continued on the lead lap.
For Edwards, it was a capper to a dreadful SpeedWeeks, where he was
involved in a handful of crashes that mangled four or five on Roush
Fenway Racing's No. 99 Fords.
"It's so frustrating. This has not been fun," Edwards said. "My guys,
they're not quitting and are working hard. They've already told me
they're ready to go to Phoenix and dominate. We're not getting held
down this year. It doesn't matter how many cars we wrecked here. We're
fighting to the very end."
The race also marked the debut of the sixth generation of NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series race car, which focuses on brand identity and a
showroom-style look. Kahne said that the Gen-6 racer performed well in
his brief stint on the 2.5-mile track.
"Oh, the new car is great. There is nothing wrong with the new car,"
Kahne said. "It's a 500-mile race, so everybody wants to take it easy
and wait till later on and I'm not going to get to be there later on."
Daytona 500 results
1. (9) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 200, $1,525,275.
2. (19) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 200, $1,104,814.
3. (14) Mark Martin, Toyota, 200, $817,013.
4. (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200, $707,855.
5. (34) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 200, $572,771.
6. (5) Greg Biffle, Ford, 200, $461,664.
7. (40) Regan Smith(i), Chevrolet, 200, $411,822.
8. (1) Danica Patrick #, Chevrolet, 200, $357,464.
9. (38) Michael McDowell, Ford, 200, $366,121.
10. (41) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 200, $338,738.
11. (10) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 200, $373,096.
12. (28) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #, Ford, 200, $373,399.
13. (26) Aric Almirola, Ford, 200, $356,449.
14. (35) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200, $330,739.
15. (23) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 200, $337,647.
16. (42) David Reutimann, Toyota, 200, $324,872.
17. (30) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 200, $322,785.
18. (24) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 200, $340,052.
19. (21) Joey Logano, Ford, 200, $339,097.
20. (2) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 200, $360,799.
21. (16) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 200, $343,279.
22. (29) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 200, $309,564.
23. (31) Scott Speed, Ford, 200, $305,514.
24. (37) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 200, $340,114.
25. (43) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 199, $317,038.
26. (39) Terry Labonte, Ford, 199, $307,838.
27. (33) Trevor Bayne(i), Ford, 198, $305,539.
28. (11) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 195, $336,234.
29. (17) Casey Mears, Ford, 181, $312,314.
30. (18) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, Accident, 176, $311,013.
31. (8) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 175, $313,563.
32. (20) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 161, $328,933.
33. (36) Carl Edwards, Ford, 159, $334,164.
34. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Engine, 151, $377,610.
35. (22) David Ragan, Ford, Accident, 150, $308,188.
36. (6) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 150, $334,293.
37. (12) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, Engine, 149, $544,306.
38. (25) David Gilliland, Ford, Accident, 144, $283,879.
39. (7) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 144, $318,693.
40. (32) Josh Wise(i), Ford, Accident, 137, $276,953.
41. (13) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 118, $320,904.
42. (3) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, Accident, 47, $346,418.
43. (27) Joe Nemechek(i), Toyota, Engine, 42, $264,354.
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