MOTORSPORT: Blue Oval’s big oval triumph

Ford has won the Daytona 500 – at its first outing with its new NASCAR team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart retired from NASCAR driving last year after three championships in 18 years, 49 race wins and US$125m in prizemoney (more than A$160m) but without a Daytona 500 victory. This time, however, he saw one of his four drivers, Kurt ‘The Outlaw’ Busch, lead just one of 200 laps of the famed 2.5-mile (4km) Daytona International Speedway. Vitally it was the last lap as he swept by Kyle Larson’s out-of-fuel Chevrolet.

It was Busch’s 16th start in the classic and he survived a crash-fest, albeit with a car heavily taped up, to give Ford its second victory in three years and fifth in ninth years with its Fusion model. This, despite Chevrolet and Toyota having dominated NASCAR in recent years.

Stewart-Haas Racing, formed when industrial tools tycoon Gene Haas wooed Stewart into co-ownership by gifting him half a team, switched to Ford from Chevrolet over the off-season.

“The look on Gene Haas’ face right now, that smile, makes it all worth it,” Stewart said of his adventurous partner, who will be in Melbourne in late March as his Formula 1 team begins its second season.

Busch, Ford’s last Cup champion in 2004 and, at 38, seven years older than his brother Kyle (Toyota’s 2015 champ), won the slipstreaming battle at the finish as the majority of the 11 frontrunners sputtered out of fuel.

“My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back. I thought that was an omen – throw caution to the wind,” Busch said.

“It was one of the smartest chess games I have seen out there. I let it rip, just elbows out.

“I almost forgot to drive the line I was supposed to drive [on the high-banked oval] because I was shutting off all my switches, going to reserve fuel and saying a Hail Mary. [But] It all turned out. The car is completely trashed – there’s not a straight panel on it,” Busch stated.

Busch took the chequered flag 0.228sec ahead of another Ford, driven by Ryan Blaney, who charged from the back of the lead pack with two laps to go only to gasp for fuel with the line in sight.

AJ Allmendinger was third in a Chevrolet, while Aric Almirola (Marcos Ambrose’s last teammate in the US) was fourth for Richard Petty Motorsports.

Joey Logano did best of Roger Penske’s two Ford drivers, finishing sixth.

This was Ford’s 15th victory in 59 Daytona 500s and Stewart said: “Doug Yates and everybody at [engine supplier] Roush Yates Engines brought unbelievable power all week”.

“It was a crazy race. Even crazier to sit and watch it from a pit box. If I had known all I had to do was retire [to win], I would have retired 17 years ago,” Stewart said.

Ford senior executive Raj Nair said: “What a great win to start off a partnership. We were so fast. We knew we had a good chance and Kurt hung in there after getting caught up in that crash. He didn’t give up.”

The biggest crash of the day involved 17 cars. NASCAR is splitting its races into three segments this year and ‘the big one’ came on lap 128, early in the final stage, after Kyle Busch had taken top points after 60 laps and another Stewart-Haas driver, Kevin Harvick, at 120.

Fifteen cars were more than 10 laps down at the end. Fifteen of the 40 starters weren’t classified as finishers.

It was hard luck for Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet pair Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Junior, who had started on the front row.

The 21-year-old Elliott looked poised for victory in the closing laps but ran out of fuel, while Earnhardt, back after missing the second half of last season from concussion, was caught up in a crash when Kyle Busch turned sideways in front of him.

Jimmie Johnson, shooting for what would be a record eight title this season, was caught up in ‘the big one’, as was the only woman in the race, Danica Patrick.