The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series started Sunday (2/18) with the “Great American Race.” Austin Dillon put the #3 Chevrolet back in Victory Lane for the 60th running of the Daytona 500.
The race was full of wrecks thanks to stage racing and the new “no ride height” rule and the smaller spoiler for less down-force on the cars. In fact, drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and more didn’t even get to finish the race due to damage to their cars during the race at Daytona International Speedway.
Danica Patrick raced in NASCAR for the final time Sunday and she too was a victim of crash damage and was not able to finish her final race.
Before crashing out of the race, Kurt Busch won stage one of the race and Ryan Blaney won stage two of the race gaining valuable bonus and playoff points.
With laps winding down in the scheduled 200 laps (500 miles) of racing another crash sent the race in to NASCAR Overtime. This year the rules for overtime were changed as well. The leader of the race during a green-white-checkered overtime attempt must take the white flag to qualify the attempt as a good restart otherwise they will line up again if there is a yellow before the white is displayed. If the leader takes the white flag, the next flag will end the race, yellow or checkered. Starting this year they will make as many attempts as needed to get that good restart.
When the green flag waived for the overtime restart there were only 15 cars on the lead lap. Two laps later it was Austin Dillon claiming his first Daytona 500 win twenty years after Dale Earnhardt Sr. claimed his one and only Daytona 500 victory in the #3 car during his legendary career in 1998.
The Daytona 500 win was Austin’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Sprint Cup career win. It was also on the second time in NASCAR history that the #3 won the Great American Race.
You can see the complete race results for the 60th Daytona 500 race here.
Austin is now all but guaranteed a spot in the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at the end of the season with that win. You would also think that a result of the win would be that Austin would be the leader in the drivers standings. You would be wrong. Because of bonus points at the end of the first two stages and final finishing spot in the race Ryan Blaney leads the point standings with Joey Logano in second place. 2018 Daytona 500 Champion Austin Dillon is in third place. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings here.
The next stop of the schedule is Atlanta Motor Speedway this Sunday, February 25th for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
By: Buck Stevens
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