Newman, Penske, Dodge, Toyota, Earnharrt, Stewart...the 500 had something for everyone. Well, almost... (LAT photo)
NASCAR, one way or other, got some of what it wanted and not a lot elsewhere in Sunday’s 50th Daytona 500, which was promoted as epochal.
Simply being the 50th was enough of a tag in many ways. Heck, there have been 91 Indianapolis 500s, 104 World Series, and 42 Super Bowls – none on its own a milestone event, noted more for longevity. The 50th 500, if nothing else, marked a major anniversary,
This was a decent race, not a great race (agree with me or not), but you get all kinds in 50-some years, regardless of circumstance. We’ve seen good races with bad cars and boring drivers, bad races with good cars and superstars, etc.
There was a tendency throughout the races from Thursday (and further back, to the Shootout) to credit NASCAR’s new car when things went right – in other words, what once was called the Car of the Future fulfilled another intention in its design. In other words, the race was close and fair, although it’s hard to say the car had a lot to do with it.
Friday’s Truck race and Saturday’s Nationwide prelim use different-styled vehicles and both classes put on competitive shows. It could simply be that you could put on a good event at Daytona with monkeys on tricycles.
The new car also revealed some flaws, although it’s easy enough for NASCAR to declare that teams simply weren’t prepared for the machinery. The front bump stops, for example, were problematic, although the number of cases (most notably the No. 24 of Jeff Gordon) was low.
Certainly NASCAR would likely have preferred a different winner – superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. or four-time champion Gordon, to name a couple. But really, aside from Earnhardt and Gordon (whose legions make up about 75 percent of the fervent fan base), who could have satisfied the crowd? Tony Stewart, maybe?
Instead, it got droll Ryan Newman, who hadn’t won in nearly three years. Newman passed Stewart for the lead on the last lap, giving Captain Roger Penske his first Daytona 500, Newman taking his first win on a restricted track.
