The Daytona 500 started under mostly sunny skies but a decidedly mixed view on who will be the first to the finish line in about three hours.
The favorite is Brad Keselowski, who started 31st and quickly settled in for what he hopes is an uneventful slog to the front. The problem for him and every other driver, of course, is that the Daytona 500 is never uneventful.
When it comes to wrecks, it’s never a question of if but when they will occur and how many cars will be caught in the mayhem. Last year’s winner, Kurt Busch, led only one lap. Luckily for him, it was lap No. 200.
Kevin Harvick led 50 laps and finished 22nd. There were eight cautions and 15 cars were knocked out of the race.
Added to that uncertainty is the turnover of drivers as NASCAR keeps ushering in replacements for legends like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.
Nearly half the field is comprised of drivers in the 20s. Alex Bowman started on the pole in his first race as Earnhardt’s replacement in the No. 88 car. All that, and the 24-year-old is listed as a 20-1 longshot to win.
Chase Elliott, the 22-year-old superstar-in-waiting, is listed at 9-1. He nearly won last year’s Daytona 500 but ran out of gas in the final laps.
Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano are all listed at 12-1, while seven-time Cup champ Jimmie Johnson is 15-1.
But as the cars roared around the track for the first lap Sunday, the only sure bet is that there will be chaos to come.
Lost dog is found
NASCAR can be a dog-eat-dog competitive world, but it turns out there are pet lovers among the racing family.
There was a pre-race crisis about an hour before the Daytona 500 when driver Brad Keselowski’s family found their small dog was missing at the racetrack amid a crowd of more than 100,000 people.
Keselowski’s wife, Paige, tweeted a plea to help find the missing pooch: “We have lost our sweet Tess here at @DISupdates ! Please if you see her let us know. thank you!”
The tweet went viral among the NASCAR community and was retweeted by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wife, Amy.
She added her own plea to find the lost god: “Please keep your eyes out for the Keselowski’s sweet little dog! She’s lost at the track today!”
The story had a happy ending.
About 17 minutes after the first missing dog alert was tweeted, Paige Keselowski tweeted, “She’s back!!!!!” along with a photo of her and daughter Scarlett hugging Tess.
Amy Earnhardt confirmed the news. “The found her. End search party & continue cold beer party,” she tweeted.
Former champions reflect on Daytona experiences
Three-time Daytona 500 champion Bobby Allison (1978, 1982, 1988), 1972 champion A.J. Foyt and 1985 champion Bill Elliott all agreed winning at Daytona jump-started their careers.
“I had won some NASCAR races, but not here,” Allison said before the 60th annual Daytona 500. “It made a tremendous difference in the way people treated me. Sponsors jumped up for me and all those kinds of things. It was really good.”
Foyt could barely put the feeling of winning the 1972 Daytona 500 into words.
Elliott said he’d won a few races in 1984, but Daytona was special.
“I hadn’t done a lot to that point,” Elliott said.
“To come here and win at Daytona was kind of the pinnacle. We felt like, when we were racing… if you ran good, everything would take care of itself. You put yourself in a position to win, some things come together and you win a race.
“A fantastic feather in my cap for my career. Wouldn’t take anything in the world for it.”
What to expect in the restrictor-plate mix and mingle for the 60th running of the Daytona 500
Here’s the perspective from Ryan Blaney of Penske Racing:
“I think Sunday is gonna be way different than the Clash just because you’ve got 40 cars. With 17 it’s hard to get enough people to commit down there to want to go. I know there are maybe four or five cars that at one point tried to go and they couldn’t. That’s kind of a product of who is leading the top lane, honestly. Brad’s car was super-fast, so the top lane was really fast, so you won’t see that Sunday.
“With 40 if one car pulls down, you’re gonna have 10 of them go down there, especially if you’re 25th on back. Why not? What have you got to lose? You won’t really see that, but it’s a lot about the lead car, who is leading that group. If it’s a fast-enough car and they can kind of pull that lane and then they know how to slow up the top lane and then go to the bottom of the race track, so it’s a lot about the lead car, but a lot of people will be more willing to do it Sunday than the Clash just because there are a lot more cars.”
Chipper Jones feels at home at Daytona
Chipper Jones was one of the dignitaries at Sunday’s Daytona 500 and seemed a bit humbled to be coming back home to his Volusia County roots as a Baseball Hall-of-Famer.
“I used to come to the track all the time – Daytona 500s, Firecracker 400s, you name it,” said Jones, the Atlanta Braves great who was just voted into Cooperstown. “I saw Richard Petty win his 200thrace here. … This was a big part of my childhood.”
Jones was born in DeLand and spent his formative years in Pierson, a tiny northwest Volusia County town where his father Larry Sr. was a teacher and coach at Taylor High School. Chipper transferred to Jacksonville Bolles during his sophomore year and helped the private school powerhouse win a state championship.
“It’s been crazy and chaotic the last few weeks (after the Hall of Fame announcement),” Jones said. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing and buzzing with text messages and phone calls from people all over the country. It’s been really cool to see how many current Hall-of-Famers have sought out my phone number and called me to say congratulations.”
Asked if he has started working on his Hall of Fame induction speech, Jones said and laughed. “It’s going to be a long one. There’s a ton of people in Volusia County and Jacksonville and the City of Atlanta to thank and I certainly don’t want to forget anybody.”
Charlize Theron is excited to start race
When Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron heard she was named honorary starter for the 60th annual Daytona 500, she thought the committee made some kind of mistake.
Now that she’s here, she’s not going anywhere.
“Even if they made a mistake, I’m not leaving,” she said with a wide smile.
She added, “I don’t really know the intricate details of NASCAR, but I really love the sport of car racing. I grew up with a family that really loved the sport. I’m very excited to be here today and to learn more. I cannot wait for those cars to take off.”
She spent some time promoting her upcoming movie Gringo, which she’s starring in and producing.
“It’s a really fun movie, which I think we need more of,” she said.
Theron was last in Daytona while filming for her Oscar-winning role in the movie “Monster.” Also, when she was 19, she came to Daytona for some skydiving after “a night of drinking.”
Theron said she’s appreciated cars since she was a child. She used to race go-karts her father built – she was quick to mention she frequently beat the boys she went up against.
“My family were real fans of car racing,” she said. “My father loved it. My father built a lot of cars. I was raised on a farm where there were always a lot of engines lying around. You realize you come from that family when at 8 you know what a spark plug does and your friends don’t.”
She also mentioned her time training for the movie “The Italian Job” – she joked Mark Wahlberg threw up while going through the driving training.
“He’s going to kill me,” she said while laughing.
Peyton Manning ready to drive pace car
Today’s Daytona 500 honorary pace car drive will be Peyton Manning.
The two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback was seen signing autographs for fans before the race.
“Serving as the Honorary Pace Car Driver will be a truly unique and exciting experience,” Manning said in a statement when his Daytona role was announced. “I want to thank NASCAR, Daytona International Speedway and Nationwide for making this possible. I’m really looking forward to race day.”
Manning won’t be the only celebrity with NFL ties at today’s race. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is expected to be at the race to support his new girlfriend, driver Danica Patrick.
A who’s who of former Daytona 500 winners was also in attendance: 1972 champion A.J. Foyt, three-time champ Bobby Allison, 1985 champ Bill Elliott and seven-time champion Richard Petty.
Manning drew quite the crowd of onlookers and autograph seekers as the former NFL superstar tried to make his way from the driver’s meeting to pit row.
He was met with a chorus of ‘Omahas’; his signature audible call during his time with the Denver Broncos while some wishful thinking fans asked him to come out of retirement and sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Shirt maker fan stakes spot to get autographs
It’s hard to miss Tammy Pickett.
The Kentucky native can usually be found camped outside the media center at the Daytona International Speedway armed with a handful of fluorescent yellow t-shirts and a Sharpie. Each shirt features a personalized message like ‘I [heart] Charlize Theron’ with a bright red heart in place of the word love.
“A.J. Foyt. A.J. sign my t-shirt,” she screamed out to the racing legend Sunday. Foyt took a few moments to sign the shirt and pose for a photograph.
This is the seventh year that Pickett has been here for the Daytona 500.
Each time, she brings a new batch of handmade t-shirts with her geared for the particular celebrity, driver or athlete who will be on hand for the annual event.
She has over 400 shirts adorned with signatures from just about everybody including several presidents including Trump, Clinton and even Jimmy Carter. They are featured on the walls of his embroidery shop in Russell Springs.
Earnhardt planning ‘traditional’ command
Instead of driving in today’s Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be the one who will give the command for racers to start driving.
The recently retired Earnhardt is today’s grand marshal, and he says his command to the drivers to start their engines will “pretty traditional.”
As for not being on the track as a driver for the first time since the 2001 Daytona 500, he says he’s “been honored to be asked to be any part of this weekend.
“I have such a passion for our sport and special feelings for this track and this event,” he says.
Earnhardt is a two-time Daytona 500 champion, winning in 2004 and 2014. He says those wins are still very special.
“Nothing ever kind of matches the emotion of when you cross the finish line and know you’ve won this race,” Earnhardt says. “…It’s almost overwhelming, and that’s an understatement.”
He adds, “They compare it to the Super Bowl, and I would say it’s similar to that. It’s that one race victory that we put at the top of the list.”
While the track has been home to some of his happiest moments, it was also the site of the death of his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., on the last lap of the 2001 race. Junior had to decide it he was going to hate Daytona or embrace it as a special place for him and his father.
“I made peace with this place a long time ago,” he says. “I want to be at Daytona when they race here. That was the choice I made a long time ago and I feel very comfortable here.”
Media members honored
Before today’s race, Daytona International Speedway recognized four journalists who have covered the Daytona 500 for a number of years.
Columnist Don Coble of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, photographer Jim Tiller of the Daytona Beach News-Journal and motorsports editor Godwin Kelly of the News-Journal were recognized for covering their 40th consecutive 500 today.
That sounds impressive until you hear that Al Pearce from Autoweek is here covering his 50th consecutive Daytona 500.
Members of the media were given cake and cookies to celebrate.
Weather looks perfect
The morning fog has lifted and fans are arriving for the 60th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.
Weather is not expected to be a factor at all today. While there was widespread fog across the area this morning, making driving a bit hazardous for fans arriving in Daytona Beach via Interstate 4, the fog is gone and the sun is shining brightly.
The forecast calls for a sunny sky with temperatures in the mid-70s during the race.
Alex Borman in the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet is on the pole, with former champions Denny Hamlin next to him in the No 11 Fed Ex Express Toyota,
The race is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. today.
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