History Made at Daytona in More Ways Then One

Courtesy of Nascar.com

Wow!! What a race. I think its safe to say that the 53rd Daytona 500 was a wild and crazy race. A bunch of records were broken during the race. Coming into the race we had no idea how the race would play out with the 2 car drafts. In the end, it was an awesome race. There was a record 74 lead changes, 22 leaders, and unfortunately there was also a record 16 cautions.

Now lets get to the race. Trevor Bayne won the race in only his second ever cup start.In winning the race, Bayne, 20,  became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500 by 5 years.  He had a super fast car all race long. He was the best pusher of any of the driver out there. His 21 Wood Brothers Ford was awesome all race long. Bayne avoided all the wrecks and was in position to win the race at the end. On the second attempt at a green white checkered finish Bayne was in the lead and got a great push by Bobby Labonte. Carl Edwards made a late charge to second place but was not able to get around Bayne. The win by Bayne was Ford's 600th win and Ford took up the top 3 positions in the race.

Courtey of Nascar.com

Observations from the race

• The win was the first for the Wood Brothers since Elliott Sadler won at Bristol in 2001
• It was great to see a sell-out crowd at Daytona with some of the best speedweeks weather in a long time
• Not the way JJ wanted to start his title defense off with a DNF. But dont count that team out
• The Toyota's didn't have the speedweeks that they had hoped for.
• Nice to see Bobby Labonte and David Gilliland have great finishes in the race
• Feel terrible for David Ragan who lost the Daytona 500 on a penalty for changing lanes before the start-finish line on a restart
• Glad that the race track or the yellow line had nothing to do with the finish of the race
• Weird that Edwards is the point leader even though Bayne won the race
• All three winners did not earn driver points because they are running for the championship in different series
•  Once again Stewart came close to winning his first Daytona 500
• Michael Waltrip has not mastered the two car draft causing two different wrecks
• Earnhardt Jr. good run was ruined with a late race wreck
• 6th straight year with a first-time Daytona 500 winner
• The 2 car drafts were the doom of 3 ECR engines which were usually very reliable

Next race: Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway