DAYTONA BEACH — Same ol’, same ol’, you know.
Late wreck.
Then another.
A Hendrick car wins.
William Byron, second straight year, winner of the Great American Race.
But until the end, this one was at least a bit different than most. My goodness, how much three-by-three racing did we see Sunday night?
You were led to believe each racer knew exactly where his wheels were connected to the asphalt and could put them — or keep them — anywhere he wanted.
But when they got down to less than 10 to go, we all should’ve known better. It’s one thing to hold your powder, say, on Lap 50, 60 or even 180, quite another when you get past 190. And yet again Sunday evening, the visions of that checkered flag got the best of ’em.
It’s quite predictable in these things — sadly or comically, take your pick — but you know they won’t complete those final few laps, or even final half-lap, without mayhem.
This time, the beneficiary wasn’t simply a spot or two behind the mess. William Byron began the final lap ninth and was sitting fifth when he snapped his wheel to the right on the backstretch, attempting a move just as the leaders came together and went haywire entering Turn 3.
He was ahead of the others in less than the blink of an eye, just as those others were pointing sideways, and then motored home with Tyler Reddick trailing. No caution was thrown as the wreck behind them continued, and that’s interesting, to say the least, given the quick trigger Thursday night.
We got ourselves a pedigree winner, and the same one, for the second straight year. But this the Daytona 500, where the Have Nots often rule, and let it be known, Cole Custer made a power move toward the lead on the outside, and Corey LaJoie was lurking strongly in the inside lane, as that final-lap powder keg ignited.
It was a typical Daytona finish following a fragmented Sunday where the Daytona 500 show-biz wasn’t just symbolically separated from the racing, but physically separated by hours, courtesy of yet another rain delay.
Trump steals the pre-race show at Daytona 500
A big part of any Daytona 500 is the pageantry, and the pageantry is all the things that take place before the actual race.
This year, there was give and take on that front.
Things were truncated because NASCAR and the Speedway both have a weather app. And that app suggested things were going to hell shortly after 2 p.m.
And when the pre-race agenda includes a sitting U.S. President, and weather is coming, you adapt. Things were moved up an hour, and wouldn’t you know it, things worked out well for President Donald Trump, whose presence was strongly felt in the final hour before the green flag waved.
There was an Air Force One flyover that’s always impressive, no matter how often you see that massive bird pass by. And then a presidential limo leading the field through a couple of pre-race parade laps, as it did five years ago before another Daytona 500 that would start and soon stop.
This is big stuff for NASCAR. Very welcomed. But if we’re looking for one hitch in the giddy-up, it’s gotta be the timing of the initial Thunderbirds flyover, which normally comes at the immediate end of the national anthem, not a tick before “and the home of the brave.”
It seemed as if the presidential arrival and formalities accompanying it shoved around the down-to-the-second schedule, but again, a small price to pay.
Hustling to accommodate a presidential visit while trying to put on the usual show was no easy task, and it showed, but nobody seemed overly bothered.
A prime-time Sunday kickoff to a new NASCAR season
So we end another NASCAR Speedweek, which used to be a Speedweeks. By Sunday’s end, the day had been long, had come at the end of a few eventful days, and therefore felt like the end of several weeks.
NASCAR now exits Daytona and heads into a new season just like it’s done since the early 1980s when the Daytona 500 became the season opener and never gave up that designation. The guess here is, a rain delay is never desired, but when the result is a Sunday evening prime-time audience, no one complains.
An audience carry-over usually occurs, and will happen again as NASCAR moves on to Atlanta, which recently became another track where the restricting rules limit horsepower and lead to more of the pack-racin’ we saw Sunday at Daytona. Those “others” who had a chance to win at Daytona will get yet another shot next weekend.
And then the upper rungs of NASCAR’s food chain will start taking over, which will seem normal in a season that might yield abnormal headlines.
There’s a court case out there, involving a couple of racing plaintiffs and charges of antitrust violations. It might fizzle, it might not.
Unless things settle one way or another, a trial will begin a few weeks after the season ends. That would be very different.
How the season began was rather normal.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500 starts with Trump, ends with crash, gets repeat winner
