The past few years have given us a mixed bag when it comes to NASCAR’s premier event. The race was marred by stale action on some occasions and heartbreaking crashes on others, causing the prestigious Daytona 500 to lose some of its luster for many fans.
This year, however, motor racing enthusiasts were treated to a thriller from start to finish.
The race saw several late warning flags for crashes, including one that ended it on the final lap just as Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. had passed Joey Logano for the lead. But that shouldn’t take away from what was one of the most competitive Daytona 500s of all time.
There were 52 lead changes in this year’s edition of the Great American Race, tying it for second all-time in this regard. Only 2011 saw more.
More importantly, racing through the 212 laps was never boring. Often on NASCAR superspeedway tracks, drivers will spend long portions of the race riding in single file waiting for the right moment to move. This rarely happened on Sundays.
What makes this more impressive is that until the final stages we saw such action without the race turning into a demolition derby. Drivers were able to work their way forward, rather than having track position drop in their laps through attrition.
Stenhouse, who won his third career Cup Series event – all on superspeedways – rode a smart and methodical race. He rode in the middle of the field for much of the afternoon and only took the lead at the end.
Dissenters of NASCAR’s most chaotic type of racing often claim that it now takes a lot more luck than skill to win the Daytona 500. In some years, they’ll probably have a point.
However, this was not one of them. After several years of disappointments, the 2023 version of the Daytona 500 was a step in the right direction to bring the race back to its legendary status.
Sports Grp1
Don’t miss interesting posts on Famousbio
