Sports with Sean
February 24, 2016
Last Sunday was not a good day for Hendrick Motorsports team, but it was one of the most exciting Daytona 500s there has been in a long time. Pole position winner Chase Elliot was driving the 24 car and had won the Xfinity race on Saturday so many assumed he’d perform just as well for the Sprint Cup Series.
The 58th annual race had 6 cautions for 31 laps and had 20 lead changes between 15 different drivers. The race was a little over 3 hours long.
Things took a turn for the worst for the rookie Chase Elliot when he got into a wreck on Lap 19 of 200. My hope for his first race to be a win was gone, as he came back into the race 40 laps down.
From that point forward I put all my hope into Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take the win and commemorate 15 years since his father’s tragic death. Junior did a great job all throughout the race until Lap 179 when he got into a wreck. I was disappointed because I wanted to see the 88 car take a stroll down victory lane. He later on finished the race in 38th place.
From that point I had to put all my hope into Jimmie Johnson as he was fighting for a top 10 finish. Denny Hamlin in the 11 FedEx car led almost half the race holding first for 95 laps. Between the fact that the track had new offerings for the fans, and the race being super close, it’s hard to tell what was more exciting.
The race was close the whole time all the way to the final lap. The race was between Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Martin Truex Jr. Hamlin was in first, followed closely was Truex Jr., with Busch trailing behind.
When the last lap came about, it was a nail biter. With a one-hundredth of a second margin between the two drivers, there had to be a finish line photo taken to decide who the victorious driver was. Many believed that Truex won and fans of the 78 car were celebrating. Then the heartbreaking news came about to the 78 fans that Hamlin had won the race by a fraction of a second.
This race was the first sold out Daytona 500 in a long time, and it brought attention to many NASCAR fans out there as Dale Jr. was the favorite to win the race with 10:1 odds. But I believe the sport might have a chance at being popular again.
NASCAR as a sport has been fading the past few years and I don’t like that. But with the new rules and regulations, I think that the sport itself is rising from the dead.
