Surprise winner at 2021 Daytona 500

Penske duo clash

The race was turned on its head at Turn 3 on the very last lap when Penske’s Brad Keselowski tapped team-mate and leader Joey Logano into a spin that triggered a dramatic multi-car wreck. Either could have won this race for Roger Penske’s team, but instead both Ford drivers were left ruing what might have been.

“I had a big run down the backstretch and wanted to make the pass to win the Daytona 500, and it ended up really bad,” said Keselowski. “I don’t feel like I made a mistake, but I can’t drive everybody else’s car. So frustrating.”

Right behind them McDowell’s #34 Front Row Motorsports Ford and reigning NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott were vying for third place – which became the lead as the race finished under caution. McDowell had been a car’s length ahead of Elliott when the Penske duo got together, so the verdict went his way. He becomes the eighth driver in history to break his NASCAR duck with a maiden victory at the Daytona 500 ­– and it was the only time he led the race all night.

“I can’t believe it,” McDowell said. “I’ve got to thank God. So many years of just grinding it out, hoping for an opportunity like this. I’ve got to thank (team owner) Bob Jenkins for giving me this opportunity. I’m so thankful. What a great way to get a first victory — in the Daytona 500!”

Big guns miss out

Elliott finished second in what would have been his first win in the 500, ahead of 2018 race victor Austin Dillon. Kevin Harvick, winner here in 2007, led the early stages before the first big wreck of the night and the long rain delay, and emerged fourth at the flag.

There was disappointment for Denny Hamlin, who ended his historic bid for three straight Daytona 500 victories and the fourth of his career with fifth place. The Toyota driver led a total of 98 laps and claimed victory in the first two point-scoring stages of the race, but lost his lead advantage in the final green flag pitstops.

Cope cops it early

This was clearly a day (and a night) where the grand old speedway seemed determined to rip up obvious storylines and remind NASCAR’s stars that nothing at the Florida speedbowl can ever be taken for granted.

One intriguing side-story was wiped out as early as lap three. Veteran Derrick Cope, 62, won the Daytona 500 31 years ago, in 1990, and was hoping to sign off his top-line NASCAR career on a high in his first Daytona 500 start for 16 years. But instead his #15 Chevrolet hit the wall on lap three after contact with Bubba Wallace’s #23 Toyota. He turned out to be the first of many to be out of luck, with chaos ensuing just a few minutes later.

Sixteen cars wiped out

As that final lap proved, luck and most crucially the lack of it can play the biggest hand in who wins and loses in NASCAR’s superspeedway pack racing, and the other big moment of the race kicked off on lap 14. A multi-car wreck wiped out 16 cars on the back straight, and given that it was triggered at the front of the field the losers included some of the day’s major players. Kyle Busch tapped fellow Toyota driver Christopher Bell, who then bumped into Aric Almirola. The #10 Ford, running second to leader Kevin Harvick, slewed right and collected pole position winner Alex Bowman’s #48 Chevrolet. Karma would have the last laugh for Busch, who would later get caught up in the last lap wreck.

Almirola’s misfortune triggered chaos and an abrupt end to the 2020 Daytona 500 for, among others, former winners Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray and perhaps most heartbreakingly of all Ryan Newman – a year on from the terrifying last-lap crash that left the 43-year-old in an induced coma. Newman had nosed his #6 Ford into a brief lead just minutes earlier, but any notion of a fairy-tale return to Daytona a year on from his miraculous deliverance was scotched in a blink of an eye. And there wasn’t a thing he or his other pile-up victims could do about it.

As the second caution period of the race kicked in, flashes of lightning and heavy rain forced a red flag stoppage and a long pause for the weather to clear. When it finally did, no one could have predicted how this one would end – least of all Michael McDowell. It turned out to be the defining moment of his professional life.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.