DAYTONA, Fla. — NASCAR’s biggest race is also its season-opening race, and the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series season will see the ushering in of a new era when the green flag waves on the Daytona 500 Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. The race begins at 2:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on FOX.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr., start on the front row after setting the fastest times in single-car qualifying runs last weekend. Elliott is seeking his first Cup victory of any kind and showed promise in winning his qualifying race on Thursday.
Earnhardt is a two-time Daytona 500 winner and considered a strong favorite on Sunday. He previously won the race in 2004 and 2014. Starting in Row 2 are 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, and defending race-winner Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin’s victory a year ago was the closest finish in the 58-year history of the “Great American Race.” He beat Toyota teammate Martin Truex Jr. by .010 seconds. A Hamlin victory would make him just the fourth driver to win consecutive Daytona 500s, joining Richard Petty (1973-74), Cale Yarborough (1983-84), and Sterling Marlin (1994-95).
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Expected Daytona 500 contenders Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have positioned themselves near the front of the field through the opening laps. Elliott started on the pole but was quickly passed by Earnhardt, a Hendrick Motorsports teammate, and the lead has since jostled among the top challengers.
Joey Logano, the 2015 Daytona 500 winner, was among the front group of cars until he had to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a loose right-front wheel. He is currently at the very tail of the lead lap, running just ahead of the lead pack.
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The first caution of the afternoon came when Cory LaJoie overshot pit road and slammed into the outside frontstretch wall just short of the start/finish line.
The rookie driver was attempting to make a pit stop with a group of cars, but he couldn’t slow down due to an apparent brake failure and when he tried to return to the racing surface the momentum carried him into the wall. He narrowly avoided colliding with Clint Bowyer.
Ryan Blaney has emerged as the early story. After starting at the rear of the field due to a switch to a backup car following a crash in Thursday’s Duel qualifying races, the Wood Brothers Racing driver wasted little time making his way to the top position. He currently leads Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski.
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Kyle Busch won the first Daytona 500 segment, followed by Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Completing the top 10 were Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick.
Under the new three-stage race format unveiled over the offseason, the top-10 finishers in the first two segments receive points on a 10-to-1 sliding scale. The winner of the third segment is the race winner, with points then distributed throughout the 40-car field.
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As the Daytona 500 hits the halfway point of the 200-lap race, varying strategies have shaken up the Daytona 500 running order.
The Toyota teams of Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row Racing are electing to short-pit, while the balance of the field are waiting to pit until the end of a fuel run. But the Toyota strategy has backfired to some degree, as Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin, the defending race-winner, have fallen a lap behind.
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Several big names have been swept into a multi-car wreck just past halfway.
Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth were knocked, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sustained significant damage in a multi-car accident that began when Busch’s Toyota had a tire go flat entering Turn 3. Also involved were Erik Jones and Ty Dillon.
The crash occurred on lap 108 of 200. NASCAR put the Daytona 500 under the red flag to clear the debris off the track. The race was stopped for 17 minutes.
The accident was especially costly for Toyota, with Busch, Kenseth and Jones all driving for the carmaker. Busch blamed Goodyear for what he believed was a poorly constructed tire that triggered the accident.
Earnhardt’s front end bared the brunt of the damage when he couldn’t escape the spinning Busch, slamming into the No. 18 car. The No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team attempted to make repairs to Earnhardt’s car on pit crew, hoping to let Earnhardt continue under NASCAR’s new damage-car policy. The cars of Busch, Jones and Kenseth were too damaged to continue.
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Earnhardt’s team was unable to make repairs within five minutes and the No. 88 car retired from the race. Earnhardt will finish 37th in his first official race since returning from a concussion suffered in a race last summer at Michigan International Speedway.
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It took longer than expected, but the “Big One” struck the Daytona 500 on Lap 127.
A tap from Jamie McMurray sent Jimmie Johnson crashing as he entered Turn 3, and in the aftermath 16 cars sustained damage of some kind. Among those involved: Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick, Danica Patrick and Clint Bowyer, all of whom were running well and up near the front.
Johnson, the defending Cup Series champion, blamed McMurray for triggering the accident, calling the contact unnecessary as he entered the turn. McMurray escaped damaged and continued on.
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The Daytona 500 has transformed into a crash-fest. Just 13 laps after a wreck collected 16 cars, another multi-car accident broke out damaging several vehicles.
Similar to the “Big One” on Lap 127, Jamie McMurray was the catalyst for the carnage. He appeared to clip Chase Elliott’s bumper off Turn 4, stacking up the field behind them. When the smoke cleared, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne, Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez and Denny Hamlin were among those suffering damage.
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Kurt Busch won the 2017 Daytona 500 after late race leader Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson both ran out of gas.