What Really Happened Sunday

What Really Happened on Sunday - Breakdown of the Daytona RaceBy D Mnn


The 50th running of the Daytona 500 was nothing short of spectacular. NASCAR couldn't have planned a better finish. Well, unless you watched the very first or last year's Daytona 500 with the amazing finishes.
But after watching the race I saw things a little differently than a lot of the commentators. So I felt that it was my obligation to voice my opinion of the race, because I was frustrated with what I was hearing. So here is what really happened on Sunday...
Ahead of the restart with 3 laps to go, Kyle Busch got on his radio and talked to Tony Stewart. He asked Tony whether he preferred the top or the bottom. Tony said the bottom, but he could go high. So on the restart Kyle ducked under Jeff Burton and took the bottom away, probably thinking that Tony would go with him. But Tony knew Kyle had the better car. So instead of sticking with his teammate he went high to try and beat Kyle to the lead.
Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch stuck together and pushed Tony to the lead. Dale Jr. went low with Kyle but with the older tires he was on couldn't stick with Kyle through turns 1 and 2. Kyle ended up loosing the draft and falling back. Kyle ducked back in behind his brother, Kurt, to regain the draft shortly, and then ducked back down to the inside ahead of Kasey Kahne.
By the time Kyle was going through turn 4 he was about 7 car lengths behind. But when he got to turn 2 of the next lap he was within 3 car lengths. Then Ryan cut down in front of Kyle to take his momentum away, which brought Tony down to block Ryan.
Going into turns 1 and 2 of the last lap, Newman does the right thing and goes high hoping that his teammate, Kurt, will eventually give him the push to get in front of Tony. At this point Tony has no choice. He has to go high with Newman to block. But as they get through turn 2 Kyle is coming. Kyle is now in front of Newman and closing in on Tony. It looks like it is going to be either Tony or Kyle. But to my surprise, Tony leaves the teammates on the high side and goes to the bottom.
This is where the commentators have it wrong in my opinion. Tony didn't go to the bottom to hook up with his teammate. He did it because he knew that Kyle would probably win if he didn't block him. If Tony would have stayed high he would of guaranteed Toyota and Gibbs a victory. But instead he blocked Kyle, his teammate, and let two other teammates hook up with nobody in front of them. The sad thing about it was that he had plenty of time to go back to the high side when he saw Ryan coming but he didn't. I'll bet he had about half of the backstretch to decide to block Ryan, but he was more worried about giving his teammate, who had the better car, the victory.
By the time Ryan got to Tony on the outside, Kyle was still a car length away from Tony's bumper with no momentum to get there. When they got to turn 3 Ryan and Kurt were in front of Tony and Reed Sorenson was beside him. That's how obvious it was that Tony only cared about staying in front of Kyle.
The funny thing about it was coming off of turn 4, it looks to me like Kyle could have pushed Tony a little bit but didn't. Only Kyle knows the answer to that one, but I sure would understand why he didn't, wouldn't you?
If you like this article, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Send to wrhos@yahoo.com If I get enough response I'll let you know what really happens next Sunday in the breakdown of California.
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