{"id":6269,"date":"2020-03-03T13:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/?p=6269"},"modified":"2020-03-21T12:25:03","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T16:25:03","slug":"daytona-500-the-great-american-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/daytona-500-the-great-american-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Daytona 500: The Great American Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jarred Walker – In Motion Staff Writer <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fans in the stands and on the ground enjoy a variety of activities and performances before the race begins. (Jarred Walker\/In Motion)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

     The 62nd<\/sup>\n running of the Daytona 500 was one for the ages with wrecks, \ncontroversy and a wild finish that left the jaws of viewers on the floor\n before being overcome with serious worry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n It all started on Feb. 16 with a sold-out crowd of 101,500 arriving at \nthe Daytona International Speedway just down the street from Daytona \nState College. The security measures taken were drastic and arguably the\n most thorough they have ever been for a race at the Speedway. This was \ndue to the attendance of President Donald Trump. It was the second time a\n sitting president attended the \u201cGreat American Race.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Due to the increased security searches by the Transportation Security \nAdministration and police, lines to get into the stadium were backed up \nand overflowed into lines around other parts of the track.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A last-minute visit by the president led to longer lines but that did not stop fans from attending the biggest race of the year. (Jarred Walker\/In Motion) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \n While fans filed in, Air Force One landed at Daytona Beach \nInternational Airport and Secret Service started to engulf the venue. \nAround 2:30 p.m., Trump delivered a speech in victory lane to the crowd,\n gave the command on pit road to the drivers to start their engines and \nultimately took pace laps around the track in the motorcade. The crowd \nwas excited and appreciative from start to finish, especially during the\n multiple flyovers by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. \nEverything about this event screamed patriotism. After the motorcade \npulled back into the infield, it was almost time for the green flag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Presidential motorcade makes its way across the track as the Thunderbirds fly above the Speedway. (Jarred Walker\/In Motion) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \n One more order of business before taking the start was a salute to \nJimmie Johnson, who paced the field for a lap as the fans cheered in \nappreciation of the seven-time champion who was about to embark on his \nfinal full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series. After that, it began to\n rain, and the start was delayed. After staying for a short period of \ntime hoping to watch the start of the race, Trump eventually departed \nfrom DBIA.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n At 4:20 p.m., former most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. waved the \ngreen flag to begin the race. Oddsmakers had Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, \nBrad Keselowski and Joey Logano as equal favorites to win at 10-1. After\n a very tame first 20 laps dominated by polesitter Ricky Stenhouse Jr., \nthe rain struck the track again and began another multi hour delay. This\n delay would ultimately cause a postponement of the final 180 laps until\n 4 p.m. on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stands are packed as avid race fans watch the race down below. (Jarred Walker\/In Motion) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

     Despite the delays, Fox\u2019s coverage drew nearly 11 million viewers, which was the most they had seen since 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Monday saw 72% of the crowd return and sunny skies all around. At 4:14 \np.m., the green flag was back out. Initially, there was intense racing, \nbut most of the stage featured single file lap logging before a William \nByron crash and fan favorite Chase Elliott stage win after 65 laps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Stage two featured many new contenders at the front and very similar \nracing compared to stage one. Two-time 500 champion, Hamlin, would \ndominate and win this stage after 130 laps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n The final stage featured many changes especially with the setting going\n from day to night. The final 70 laps included fierce back and forth \nracing, tons of crashes and an abundance of chaos with everyone racing \ntheir hardest to win the biggest race of the year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Notable drivers involved in wrecks late in the race include Stenhouse, \nJr., Keselowski, Johnson, Kurt Busch, Logano and Elliott. Along with \nthis, Kyle Busch exited the race with a blown engine after an extremely \nstrong showing once again. This pandemonium caused multiple overtime \nrestarts making it the longest 500 in history at 209 laps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n The final lap showcased a battle between Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney and \nHamlin. Hamlin was leading before being passed by Newman and Blaney \nbefore turn three. Coming out of turn four, Blaney would hook Newman \nsending him crashing into the wall and flipping. After landing on his \nroof, Newman\u2019s driver\u2019s side window would be plowed into by Corey Lajoie\n at nearly 200 mph sending him airborne and flipping again.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Hamlin and Blaney would have a photo finish at the start\/finish line \nwith Hamlin barely edging him out by .014 seconds, making it the second \nclosest 500 in history. Hamlin won the closest in 2016 by .010 seconds \nover Martin Truex, Jr. The rest of the top 10 would be Chris Buescher, \nDavid Ragan, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Brendan Gaughan, Lajoie, \nNewman and Kyle Larson.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Newman\u2019s car was destroyed and would slide on its roof to the apron of \nthe track before stopping with fuel leaking everywhere and fire burning.\n After initial hesitation, the safety workers ventured over to the car \nto immediately put out the fire and tend to Newman. After 20-30 minutes,\n droves of safety workers got the car on its correct side, extracted \nNewman out of the car and loaded him into an ambulance on a stretcher \nheaded straight to Halifax Health Medical Center, located next to DSC.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Initial reports were unclear of his condition, but the status looked \ngrim especially with the amount of time it took. The black wall barriers\n around the scene and the lack of replays shown on TV and at the \nstadium. No driver has died in NASCAR competition since Dale Earnhardt \nin 2001. His death started a revolution in NASCAR safety requirements \nsuch as the HANS device, SAFER barriers and safer cars. After initial \nextreme excitement, Hamlin went on to somberly celebrate his third 500 \nwin in five years as everybody awaited the status of Newman\u2019s health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n No updates were given for over two hours and most people were thinking \nthe worst. People across the world were sending their thoughts and \nprayers. Media patiently gathered around Halifax awaiting word. At 10:04\n p.m., NASCAR released a statement reading that Newman was \u201cin serious \ncondition, but doctors have indicated his injuries are not life \nthreatening.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n He was released from the hospital on Feb. 19, two days after the crash,\n and was joking with staff and spending time with his two daughters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 62nd running of the Daytona 500 was one for the ages with wrecks, controversy and a wild finish that left the jaws of viewers on the floor before being overcome with serious worry. Continue reading Daytona 500: The Great American Race<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6280,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions\/6280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}