Michael McDowell is a winner of the Daytona 500.
McDowell won the 2021 Daytona 500 delayed by the rain after beating Brad Keselowski on Joey Logano while Keselowski tried to make a winning run for his teammate Penske.
While Keselowski and Logano collected a lot of cars behind them, McDowell was ahead of Chase Elliott when NASCAR called out a warning for the burning accident. The victory is his first in the Cup Series and the first victory of the Daytona 500 for Front Row Motorsports.
“My plan was to follow [Keselowski]”Said McDowell.” I knew he was going to make a winning move and my plan was to let him make that move and then leave [Turn 4] try to get to your outside or inside. I knew I didn’t want to move too soon, so I was committed to [Keselowski’s] bumper and when he made the move, the hole opened. “
This also happens after McDowell was involved in a 16-car accident on lap 15, before a rain delay that lasted more than five hours. McDowell hit the wall in that accident, but his car was not damaged enough to slow down.
Keselowski did an excellent job of reaching second with two laps to go. He leaned back on the stretch and pulled Kevin Harvick out to reach Logano’s bumper. He tried the same move again on the last lap and got a great run at Logano.
But Keselowski was shot in Logano’s car by McDowell. You can see below that Keselowski was on the sidelines before making contact with Logano.
Logano also did not protect Keselowski when he moved to block the pass. You can see how Logano reacted a little late to Keselowski’s move.
“I had a great race in the final stretch and went to make the ticket to win the Daytona 500 and it ended up really bad,” said Keselowski after the race. “I don’t feel like I made a mistake, but I can’t drive everybody’s car.”
McDowell is the eighth winner for the first time to win the Daytona 500 and the first driver to score his first victory in the 500 since Trevor Bayne won the race in 2011. The final lap of the race was the only one that led.
“[Keselowski] I kept trying to retreat to get a race and I kept trying to retreat against him to prevent the races from being too big and I think he was retreated to [McDowell] and it ended up being a really big race coming towards me and it looked like we all collided at one point. “
McDowell’s first win in 358 matches
McDowell is probably in the playoffs for the first time in his NASCAR career.
McDowell is in his 14th season in the Cup Series and has never driven for a top team. The 36-year-old has only four first five and 12 results in the top 10 in his entire career and has never finished in the top 20 in the points standings.
Until this year. As McDowell’s victory (most likely) will qualify him for the playoffs thanks to NASCAR’s 16-driver system, he will not be below 16th place in the standings in 2021.
He also becomes the second driver with the most starts in the history of the Cup Series before his first victory. Only Michael Waltrip (463) had more starts in his Cup Series career before his first win. Waltrip’s first victory happened 20 years ago in the 2001 Daytona 500.
“It is unbelievable and I am very grateful, but I am grateful to have a happy and healthy family, a beautiful wife and a great family,” said McDowell. “Not everyone gets to the winning track and for 14 years I didn’t make it, so just being here now is so incredible.”
Denny Hamlin dominates the race, is dragged back late
Denny Hamlin entered the race on Sunday trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive Daytona 500s. And it looked like it was going to happen during a significant part of the race.
Hamlin led 98 of the race’s 200 laps. But he lost control of the race in the final round of green flag pit stops with less than 30 laps to go.
Hamlin spoke with teammate Kyle Busch and near-teammate Bubba Wallace for help with writing. But the three drivers left the wells too far from each other to join the drawing as they picked up speed again. With the Ford and Chevrolet teams on the first lap making their stops before the Toyotas, these cars were already at full speed when the three Toyota drivers left the pits. Hamlin ended up leaving the pits with a big advantage. But the cars behind him were going much faster.
This speed discrepancy meant that the previous package of cars was swept by Wallace, Busch and Hamlin with ease. As a result, Hamlin was out of the top 10 and never had a chance to return to the lead before the end of the race, as the drivers in the top 10 were patient until the final two laps.
He finished fifth for having managed to overcome the huge crash at the end. He said after the race that he spent the last few laps waiting for the cars in front of him to make some moves so that he could try to go forward.
“Dominant car, dominant car,” said Hamlin. “Just one of those things where you perform very well and receive load training there.”
Bubba Wallace finishes 17th
Bubba Wallace’s chances of victory ended after that round of green flag stops.
His team changed two tires on the car, but one of the two wheels that they put on the car apparently wasn’t fully tightened. This resulted in a vibration that forced Wallace down the road from the well to another stop.
This second stop caused Wallace to miss a lap of the field. Although he had the speed to keep up with the group at the front, he never had the opportunity to recover his lap. And then he ended up being part of the accident on the last lap.
End of tramp. I jumped in the back and saw the accident happening and got hit by the back. Should’ve left before 🤷🏾🤷🏾️
Fast car, can not have loose wheels.
Turn right
– Bubba Wallace (@BubbaWallace) February 15, 2021
Huge flaws at the end of the Daytona 500 book
The fire debris on the last lap came 185 laps and half a day after the 16-car pileup, not long after the race started.
The crash on the 15th lap started in the same way as the crash on the last lap. Christopher Bell received a push from Kyle Busch and, in turn, bumped into Aric Almirola. That bump came to the wrong spot on Almirola’s bumper and sent Almirola staggering to Alex Bowman to trigger the huge accident.
The accident took several candidates for victory and it happened just five minutes before NASCAR was forced to schedule the race against storms that all teams on the track knew were approaching.
The rain delay lasted five hours and 40 minutes. It was after 9 pm when the race resumed and on Monday morning in Daytona Beach when McDowell was celebrating on the infield.
Derrike Cope’s NASCAR career ends in irony
Derrike Cope, 62, made his first Cup Series debut in more than two years on Sunday. And what would be the last race of his career lasted three laps.
The winner of the 1990 Daytona 500 had a flat tire on lap 3 and hit the wall. This brought up the first warning of the day for the race and Cope ended up finishing the race in last place.
His day would be a totally forgotten footnote if it weren’t for the way Cope won the 1990 Daytona 500. Cope got the win after Dale Earnhardt suffered a flat tire while leading the race on the final lap.
Sunday’s race was 20 years after Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500. And with Earnhardt driving the iconic No. 3 for most of his career, the third race lap was the tribute lap designated in honor of Earnhardt.
Race results
1. Michael McDowell
2. Chase Elliott
3. Austin Dillon
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Ryan Preece
7. Ross Chastain
8. Jamie McMurray
9. Corey LaJoie
10. Kyle Larson
11. Cole Custer
12. Joey Logano
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Kyle Busch
15. Austin Cindric
16. Christopher Bell
17. Bubba Wallace
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
19. Chase Briscoe
20. Joey Gase
21. Cody Ware
22. Kurt Busch
23. BJ McLeod
24. Josh Bilicki
25. Martin Truex Jr.
26. William Byron
27. Tyler Reddick
28. Kaz Grala
29. Quin Houff
30. Ryan Blaney
31. Chris Buescher
32. Anthony Alfredo
33. Matt DiBenedetto
34. Aric Almirola
35. Alex Bowman
36. Daniel Suarez
37. David Ragan
38. Ryan Newman
39. Erik Jones
40. Derrike Cope
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