By Jenna Fryer
Associated Press
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — 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 will be remembered for everything but the eventual winner.
Journeyman driver Dave Blaney was leading when a problem with Juan Pablo Montoya’s car sent him spinning 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. The inferno 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.
Jet fuel poured down the surface of Turn 3 at Daytona International Speedway, creating a fiery lasting image of NASCAR’s biggest race of the year.
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 the track. 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 500, making it the first ever NASCAR race shown in primetime and an opportunity to feature the elite Sprint Cup Series. Carl Edwards, who fell just short of winning the title last season, started from 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 track surface.
The drivers were allowed to exit their cars after about 10 minutes under the red flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had been complaining he had to go to the bathroom, and Brad Keselowski was posting to his Twitter account from inside his car.
Blaney did not 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 at Blaney’s window to speak to the driver leading the biggest race of his career.
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 as they 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 accident collected six cars total, including defending Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Patrick.
“I’m just really, really bummed to start the season this way,” Johnson said. “To work as hard as everyone did at Hendrick Motorsports to get this Lowe’s Chevrolet and to have it barely 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 suspension and 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 Ice Man around?” Dale Earnhardt Jr. 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 deciding lap. 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 halfway point to win the Daytona 500 was Davey Allison in 1992.
KESELOWSI’S TWITTER
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A bizarre delay in the Daytona 500 has produced another unique moment in NASCAR: Driver Brad Keselowski posted messages on his Twitter account while he waited in his car for the race to resume.
Driver Juan Pablo Montoya’s collision with a large jet dryer vehicle touched off a huge fireball, bringing the race to a screeching halt. Montoya and the driver of the truck are OK.
NASCAR officials had the rest of the drivers stop their cars, and Keselowski took advantage of the break to post photos and answer questions from fans on his Twitter account, @keselowski. He apparently carries his mobile phone with him in his race car.
Asked by a fan whether other drivers were tweeting, Keselowski said no. He wrote: “They all think I’m crazy.”