The 2007 Daytona 500 lived up to the hype with an incredible finish. Kevin Harvick and Mark Martin were door-to-door with the field wrecking behind them. Harvick nipped him at the line by just .02 seconds to take the win. This was quite a race as the two fastest cars crashed out together while leading, there were multiple multi-car wrecks and a great finish. 2007 is everything that a Daytona 500 can be.
Qualifying
Last Sunday's qualifying was dominated by Robert Yates Racing Fords as David Gilliland and Ricky Rudd swept the front row. Thursday's Gatorade Duels saw Tony Stewart earn the right to start third. Jeff Gordon won the second Duel but failed post race inspection. This moved Kurt Busch up to the fourth starting spot.
Drop The Green Flag
David Gilliland got his Yates Ford up to speed quickly and lead the first few laps with Tony Stewart locked on his bumper in second. They ran like that until the first caution flew on lap 16.
Kurt Busch won the race off of pit road and blocked aggressively as Tony Stewart tried to find his way past. Tony did get by with the help of Kurt's brother Kyle Busch. The leaders then settled into a single-file line with Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch at the head of the field.
Storylines
Tony Stewart was leading approaching the halfway point of the race when he ran over a piece of tire debris that damaged the nose of his car slightly. As Tony pitted under caution to fix the damage he was caught speeding on pit road and was forced to restart at the end of the longest line.
Tony then had to climb all the way back through the field to try to get to the front.
It took about 70 laps for Tony Stewart to get back to the front and retake the lead. With 50 laps to go this race looks like Tony Stewart's race to win or lose. Then just a few laps later first and second place Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch crashed in turn four. Stewart touched the apron while leading and was tagged by Busch. This wreck took out the two drivers that had been fastest all day long and left the 2007 Daytona 500 up for grabs.
Chasing The Checkers
The 2007 Daytona 500 came down to a green-white-checkers finish. Mark Martin was in the lead with Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, David Gilliland and Elliott Sadler in line behind him.
Kevin Harvick got a run on the outside. There was a huge wreck coming off turn four in the last lap. Mark Martin was in the lead at that moment but NASCAR decided not to throw the yellow. Kevin Harvick beat Mark back to the line by just a nose.
I don't have anything against Kevin Harvick but I firmly believe that NASCAR should have thrown the yellow flag when the crash happened. That would have given the win to Mark Martin. Perennial bridesmaid Mark Martin got the short end of this one.
Top Ten
- Kevin Harvick
- Mark Martin
- Jeff Burton
- Mike Wallace
- David Ragan
- Elliott Sadler
- Kasey Kahne
- David Gilliland
- Joe Nemechek
- David Stremme
The Points
Since the Daytona 500 is the first race of the year the Daytona 500 finishing order closely resembles the current point standings.
The top ten in points are now:
- Kevin Harvick -0
- Mark Martin -15
- Jeff Burton -25
- Mike Wallace -30
- David Ragan -35
- Elliott Sadler -40
- David Gilliland -43
- Kasey Kahne -44
- Joe Nemechek -52
- David Stremme -56
Next Week
Now that the hype of Daytona is behind us the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup stars will settle into the week in and week out business of trying to win the Championship. The rest of the NASCAR season begins next week at the wide 2-mile oval of California Speedway. This fast, wide oval typically features long green-flag runs that force the teams to focus on strategy.
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