TRUCKS: Waltrip Wins On Special Night

Camping World Trucks

TRUCKS: Waltrip Wins On Special Night

Michael Waltrip won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race...

Tom Jensen | Posted February 18, 2011 Daytona Beach, FL

Michael Waltrip (Right) celebrates with his brother Darrell (Left) in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

Michael Waltrip won Friday night’s season-opening NextEra Energy Resources 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

That’s what the box score will say.

But what he really did is exorcize that ghosts of what happened at this track 10 years earlier, and maybe, finally earned some peace

Waltrip made a last-lap pass of Elliott Sadler to put his NASCAR Race View No. 15 Toyota in victory lane, 10 years to the day that Waltrip won the Daytona 500 and on the same day his team owner Dale Earnhardt died.

In victory lane, Waltrip sobbed, overcome by a torrent of emotions that the evening brought him. “I’m just so thankful,” he said. “I want to thank the fans, man. They keep us going and they’ve just been so good to us. ... It’s just very emotional.”

Waltrip shoved leader Sadler clear of the pack and then passed him on the outside of Turn 4 to win. “I didn’t know I could push Elliott all the way around there, and I was able to do it."

And he remembered his fallen boss in victory lane. “God bless, Dale,” Waltrip said. “His family and his fans. I came here to celebrate his life with my black truck and my 15 car. I didn’t come to celebrate a win.”

Sadler finished second ahead of Clay Rogers, Miguel Paludo, Kyle Busch and Jennifer Jo Cobb.

“I just couldn’t make it back to the start-finish line first," Sadler said. "And if anyone deserved a win tonight, it was probably Michael Waltrip.”

Austin Dillon started on the pole in his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Silverado, but James Buescher moved his No. 31 Exide Chevy from the outside of Row 1 and into the lead on the first lap of the 100-lap race.

For the first quarter of the race, the drivers played it safe, stringing out in a long, single-file line.

The leaders stopped for fuel for the first time on Lap 30, Buescher holding the lead over Ricky Carmichael’s Monster Energy Chevrolet, Kyle Busch’s Dollar General Toyota Tundra and Dillon.

The first caution came on Lap 39, when Joey Coulter lost a right-front tire in Turn 2, his No. 22 RCR Chevrolet done for the evening.

Under the ensuing caution, Buescher, Carmichael, Dillon, Jason White and Brad Sweet stayed out, holding down the top five spots under caution.

The green flew on Lap 43, Buescher maintained the lead he’d had from the start of the race. By this point, he’d led more laps in this race than in his 22 previous NCWTS series starts combined.

On Lap 55, the second yellow flew when Donnie Neuenberger lost the bed cover on his Lily Trucking Chevrolet.

Defending event winner Timothy Peters won the race off pit road over Carmichael and Buescher, who surrendered the lead for the first time all night.

Justin Marks brought out the race’s third yellow when the hood flew up on his GoPro Chevrolet, blocking his view and sending him into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 66.

Travis Kvapil, driver of the #5 International Truck Toyota, spins during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2011 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo: Getty Images)

The caution period sent the entire field down pit road for what was expected to be the last time. After the stops, the order was Clay Rogers out front in his Action Gator Tire Chevrolet, Carmichael, Peters, Dillon and Buescher.

Then it was Carmichael into the lead, at least until Sadler freight-trained him in the OneMain Financial Chevy.

Then, The Big One on Lap 75.

Travis Kavapil lost a left-front tire on his International Truck Toyota in Turn 1 and hit the outside wall, and 13 trucks behind him suddenly were wadded up in the aftermath. Ron Hornaday Jr., Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter and Johanna Long were among those caught up in the chaos.

The race restarted on Lap 82, but just a couple of laps later, David Starr and Justin Lofton crashed on the frontstretch, the track going yellow yet again.

The raced resumed on Lap 89, Sadler leading Waltrip, Peters, Dillon and Buescher. On Lap 95, Busch pushed Chris Fontaine on the outside line toward the lead.

Then chaos in the tri-oval.

Brad Sweet was running in the middle lane, when he got tagged on Lap 97, and a total of 10 cars crashed at the end of the tri-oval. No one had anywhere to go as half the trucks in the field piled into each other.

Leaders Sadler and Waltrip got through clean, but they were in the minority as Dillon, Busch, Buescher and many of the other strong trucks were badly damaged.

That set up a green-white-checkered finish, Sadler leading Waltrip, Paludo, Jennifer Cobb and Jeffrey Earnhardt.

Sadler and Waltrip broke clear, and Waltrip went wide in Turn 4, to win his first Truck Series race. And somewhere, somehow, his old boss probably was looking down and smiling.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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Tom Jensen

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