2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Apologies to everyone who viewed my seasons, I went a day without doing a race and got sidetracked for a few days. I'll try to get two races done today to make up for it!

As the green flag for the Daytona 500 was underway, it didn't take long for Carl Edwards to take over first place. How a driver can go from 10th to 1st in just 2 corners is the kind of magic you can expect to see at Daytona. Though it was short-lived, because the next caution came out on the very next lap. The big one strikes. We would have to assume Biffle had a flat tire or something likewise, because there's no reason a veteran like Biffle should be racing this hard, especially on lap 2. He moves up on innocent bystander McMurray on the outside, and into the wall. The cars behind them have nowhere to go, and everyone piles in. Among these crashed cars are frontrunners Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, and Jimmie Johnson. Many cars were out of the race after this. To make matters worse, about 3 laps after the restart on lap 10, another caution came out. Danica Patrick spins off of Casey Mears' bumper, fortunately collecting nobody else. Patrick continued after a quick tire change. Although this spin was what caused the caution, the carnage did not end there. Coming back to the line, practically every leader who was left in the front pack wrecked out in a huge crash. About half of these cars went to the garage, the rest of them were able to continue. Carl Edwards, the leader, and a fan favorite for the race, had to go behind the wall after this race. Some additional footage, here is Brian Vickers' cockpit view of his hard crash into the inside wall. Kasey Kahne probably could have continued, had it not been for Carl Edwards losing control in the infield and smashing into him. The two drivers had no words to discuss with eachother, as they both understood it was an accident. Still, they were both devastated to be eliminated from the 500 so quickly. The drivers that did continue after this race had to pit to fix the damage during the caution laps. These drivers included Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, David Gilliland, and Jamie McMurray. As the drivers exited pit road, Joey Logano's day went up in flames as he blew up with a camshaft issue. The rest of the race went cleanly. The front pack was definitely diverse, to say the least. There were the obvious contenders - Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, and even a rookie in Chase Elliott - but then there were also chances of an upset as Brian Scott, Regan Smith, and Bobby Labonte were running in front as well. Kurt Busch, of Stewart-Haas Racing, wins the 2016 Daytona 500 as David Gilliland spins behind them!

2016 Daytona 500 Finishing Results
1. #41 Kurt Busch
2. #32 Bobby Labonte
3. #44 Brian Scott
4. #2 Brad Keselowski
5. #35 David Gilliland
6. #24 Chase Elliott
7. #7 Regan Smith
8. #23 David Ragan
9. #11 Denny Hamlin
10. #59 Michael McDowell
11. #1 Jamie McMurray
12. #43 Aric Almirola
13. #95 Ty Dillon
14. #31 Ryan Newman
15. #18 Kyle Busch
16. #10 Danica Patrick
17. #34 Chris Buescher
18. #83 Michael Waltrip
19. #13 Casey Mears
20. #88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
21. #6 Trevor Bayne
22. #93 Matt DiBenedetto
23. #14 Brian Vickers
24. #38 Landon Cassill
25. #78 Martin Truex, Jr.
26. #46 Michael Annett
27. #47 A.J. Allmendinger | -1L
28. #17 Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | -1L
DNF - 29. #15 Clint Bowyer | Engine
DNF - 30. #42 Kyle Larson | Retired
DNF - 31. #19 Carl Edwards | Retired
DNF - 32. #5 Kasey Kahne | Ignition
DNF - 33. #22 Joey Logano | Camshaft
DNF - 34. #21 Ryan Blaney | Retired
DNF - 35. #27 Paul Menard | Accident
DNF - 36. #48 Jimmie Johnson | Accident
DNF - 37. #4 Kevin Harvick | Retired
DNF - 38. #20 Matt Kenseth | Retired
DNF - 39. #16 Greg Biffle | Retired
DNF - 40. #3 Austin Dillon | Retired