DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) First came the rain. Then came the fire.
Everything that could go wrong with this Daytona 500 did go wrong, and
the first NASCAR race in primetime television could be remembered for
everything but theeventual winner.
Journeyman driver Dave Blaney was leading when a problem with Juan
Pablo Montoya 's car sent himspinning under caution into a safety
truck.
The truck, which holds 200 gallons of jet kerosene, burst into flames.
Montoya's car slid into the grass, and he gingerly climbed from it as
fire trucks rushed to the scene. Theinferno raged on, and NASCAR
red-flagged the race with 40 laps remaining.
NASCAR officials were examining the track surface to determine whether
the race could continue.
''About the time you think you've seen about everything, you see
something like this,'' NASCAR president Mike Helton said.
''I think we, like everybody else, would like to see this race
finished.This is within reason, and we think we can do that within
reason. We've waited this long. Another 30minutes is worth trying to
finish the40 laps.''
Jet fuel poured down the surface of Turn 3 at Daytona International
Speedway after the accident, creating a fiery lasting image of
NASCAR's biggest race of the year.The clean-up crews were using boxes
of Tide laundry detergent toclean up the fuel.
It was par for the course for this Daytona 500, which was postponed
for the first time in NASCAR's 54-year history because of steady rain
all day Sunday at thetrack. NASCAR initially planned to restart the
race at noon Monday, but persistent rain forced series officials to
make an early decision to hold off until 7 p.m.
Fox stayed with its plans to broadcast the race, making it the first
ever Daytona 500 shown in primetime and an opportunity to feature the
elite Sprint Cup Series. Carl Edwards, who fell just short ofwinning
the title last season, startedfrom the pole with champion Tony Stewart
, seeking to snap an 0-for-13 losing streak in the Daytona 500 , right
behind him.
Danica Patrick , making the full-time move to NASCAR from IndyCar, was
making her Daytona 500 debut.
Those storylines, however, were quickly forgotten in this bizarre 55th
running of NASCAR's version of the Super Bowl.
It took several minutes for safety workers to put out the fire, and
then came the task of removing the truck from the track and cleaning
up all that spilled fuel. Towing the truck from the steep banking
presented a challenge, as NASCAR was nervous any movement would dig
into the tracksurface.
Montoya, who said his helmet was singed in the fire and his foot
ached, said he felt a vibration in hiscar before the accident.
''I've hit a lot of things - but a jet dryer?'' he said. ''It just
felt really strange, and as I was talking on theradio, the car just
turned right.''
The drivers were allowed to exit their cars after about 10 minutes
under the red flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had been complaining he had
togo to the bathroom, and Brad Keselowski was posting to his Twitter
account from inside his car.
Blaney did not initially get out of his car, and Jamie McMurray, who
outlasted nearly two hours of delays to fix a pesky pothole during his
2010 victory, stopped atBlaney's window to speak to the driver leading
the biggest race of his career. As the red flag continued, the drivers
began to congregate around Blaney, and he got out of his car.
Blaney entered the race winless in 397 previous starts. The
48-year-old from Ohio won his only NASCAR race in 2006 in the
second-tier Nationwide Series.
And he came into Daytona having to race his way into the field after
team owner Tommy Baldwin madea deal with Stewart to give Patrick the
points she needed to guarantee her a spot in the Daytona 500.
Lined up behind Blaney was Landon Cassill, who was running for BK
Racing, a team formed earlier this month when it purchased the assets
and points from defunct Red Bull Racing, and Tony Raines, who raced
his way into the Daytona 500 and picked up sponsorship from Republican
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
The racing was aggressive at the drop of the green flag, and the first
accident occurred on just the second lap, when Elliott Sadler ran into
the back of Jimmie Johnson asthey drafted around the track.
The contact sent Johnson into the wall, and as the five-time NASCAR
champion slid back down across the track, he was hit hard in the door
by David Ragan. The accidentcollected six cars total, including
defending Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Patrick.
''I'm just really, really bummed to start the season this way,''
Johnsonsaid. ''To work as hard as everyonedid at Hendrick Motorsports
to getthis Lowe's Chevrolet and to have itbarely complete
two-and-a-half miles of green flag racing is pretty sad. We'll just go
on and go to Phoenix and set our marks on winning that race.''
He may go to Phoenix without any points: NASCAR is expected to
penalize crew chief Chad Knaus this week for failing the first
inspection of SpeedWeeks. Knaus could be facing both a suspensionand a
loss of a points.
It took about an hour for Patrick's Stewart-Haas Racing crew to get
her back on the track, and she returned 62 laps behind the leader.
The race settled down after that, and the push for the $200,000 leader
bonus at the halfway mark didn't spark too much excitement. Two-time
NASCAR champion Terry Labonte had been running second and presumably
in position to make a move for the cash, but he was spun by Marcos
Ambrose.
''Awe, man! Who would turn the IceMan around?'' Earnhardt shouted on
his team radio.
After a brief caution, the leaders had a 10-lap sprint to the halfway
point, and Martin Truex Jr. used a big push from Denny Hamlin to slide
by Greg Biffle on the decidinglap. Although he was told over his team
radio to ''go get the other half,'' history didn't bode well for
Truex: the last leader at the halfwaypoint to win the Daytona 500 was
Davey Allison in 1992.Daytona Beach Region1.10 1.10 1.52 1.53 1.77 0 0
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