Patrick spends time up front; Harvick, Stewart KO'd early
Jimmie Johnson emerged from the pack after a tense restart with six laps left to win the 55th Daytona 500 on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.
Johnson, who also won the Great American Race in 2006, held off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the finish. Mark Martin, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman completed the top five
Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first woman to lead a green-flag lap in NASCAR's premier series but wound up just short with an eighth-place finish.
Patrick started from the pole position but dropped to second place behind Jeff Gordon before the first lap was halfway complete. She dropped back to the fringes of the top 10 after a slow early pit stop, but jumped to the top of the leaderboard with quick service from her crew before the third restart.
From there, she held off Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer at the start-finish line to lead the 90th and 91st laps. She moved back to the lead in the 127th lap after Kenseth made a scheduled pit stop, then led through the 129th lap until making her own stop for service.
LEADERBOARD: Daytona 500
Joe Gibbs Racing showed its strength in the late going, running 1-2-3 until two top contenders retired with mechanical issues within two laps of each other just past the three-quarter mark of the 200-lap race. Kenseth, who led a race-high 86 laps, was the first to fall out with an apparent transmission or engine problem in the 150th lap; Kyle Busch followed suit on Lap 152 with engine failure, leaving Denny Hamlin as the lone JGR Toyota to contend for the win.
"It's just frustrating," Busch said. "You come down here and you have such fast race cars. All the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing built us awesome pieces. We're running 1-2-3 there and it felt like we were dropping like flies."
Another handful of pre-race favorites dropped from contention after an early nine-car crash, triggered when Busch shoved Kasey Kahne into a spin just past the start-finish line in the 32nd lap. The melee collected Kevin Harvick -- the winner of the Sprint Unlimited and Budweiser Duel preliminaries -- and Tony Stewart, a four-time winner at Daytona, but never in the 500.
"I was kind of right in the middle of the race track, and it closed the door on us," Stewart said. "… If I didn't tell y'all I'm disappointed and heartbroken, I'd be lying to you."
Busch accepted blame as he radioed his crew during the caution period, but Kahne seemed to absolve him, saying that he hit the brakes when teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon slowed ahead of him. By the time it was over, defending Sprint Cup champ Keselowski, Casey Mears, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch were also involved.
"Oh, it's crazy. I can't believe it," Kahne said of his early exit. "I mean, I wanted to race. I didn't want to run single-file by the wall. That's what we were doing and you still got caught in something. I really don't know how it happened like that. I understand how that happens but it's restrictor-plate racing and anything can happen here."
"I was kind of right in the middle of the race track, and it closed the door on us," Stewart said. "… If I didn't tell y'all I'm disappointed and heartbroken, I'd be lying to you."
Busch accepted blame as he radioed his crew during the caution period, but Kahne seemed to absolve him, saying that he hit the brakes when teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon slowed ahead of him. By the time it was over, defending Sprint Cup champ Keselowski, Casey Mears, Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch were also involved.
"Oh, it's crazy. I can't believe it," Kahne said of his early exit. "I mean, I wanted to race. I didn't want to run single-file by the wall. That's what we were doing and you still got caught in something. I really don't know how it happened like that. I understand how that happens but it's restrictor-plate racing and anything can happen here."
Another multicar wreck in the 137th lap snared 2011 Daytona 500 champ Trevor Bayne, Carl Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., David Gilliland and David Ragan. Keselowski slid through the first turn after contact with Bayne but continued on the lead lap.
For Edwards, it was a capper to a dreadful SpeedWeeks, where he was involved in a handful of crashes that mangled four or five on Roush Fenway Racing's No. 99 Fords.
"It's so frustrating. This has not been fun," Edwards said. "My guys, they're not quitting and are working hard. They've already told me they're ready to go to Phoenix and dominate. We're not getting held down this year. It doesn't matter how many cars we wrecked here. We're fighting to the very end."
The race also marked the debut of the sixth generation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car, which focuses on brand identity and a showroom-style look. Kahne said that the Gen-6 racer performed well in his brief stint on the 2.5-mile track.
"Oh, the new car is great. There is nothing wrong with the new car," Kahne said. "It's a 500-mile race, so everybody wants to take it easy and wait till later on and I'm not going to get to be there later on."
"Oh, the new car is great. There is nothing wrong with the new car," Kahne said. "It's a 500-mile race, so everybody wants to take it easy and wait till later on and I'm not going to get to be there later on."
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