FERGUSON: McDowell win caps off another nutty day in Daytona

FERGUSON: McDowell win caps off another nutty day in Daytona
Michael McDowell celebrates in victory lane after winning the 2021 Daytona 500. Photo Courtesy Jared C. Tilton // Getty Images

That was a pretty nutty edition of a NASCAR race at Daytona.

It had the allure and every weird thing that superspeedway races seem to offer.

It feels surreal even writing that Michael McDowell is a Daytona 500 champion. I was 12 years old when Trevor Bayne won, but I’d even call this a bigger upset. Feel free to disagree with that.

McDowell is an example of so many drivers we’ve seen in NASCAR that are just hanging around waiting for their big moment. He was in the right spot to make something happen and the situation that happened in front of him was exactly what he needed.

That’s not to discredit McDowell’s talent, though, as was evident from how much McDowell’s competitors vouched for the veteran after the race.

Both Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski even congratulated McDowell after getting interviewed following the race–which is saying something considering the agony captured in this photo of Keselowski moments after the crash in the final lap.

It was all in all insane to see the No. 34 in victory lane, but to me, that was just the cherry on the cake of a wicked Sunday marathon.

The pre-race festivities kicked off on TV at 10 a.m. CT, four hours before drivers would eventually take the green flag.

Luke Combs sings during Daytona 500 pre-race ceremonies. Photo Courtesy Chris Graythen // Getty Images

Luke Combs was on television in a badass Dale Earnhardt jacket. I don’t need to tell you all how cool I found that.

FOX ran a multitude of well-done pre-race segments. They hit on pretty much every big storyline from a season of go without even breathing a mention of “the PANDEMIC.” I’m not trying to be ignorant there, but it was refreshing to watch an event without hearing about how unprecedented the times are.

First-time NASCAR viewers  – something that happens with the Great American Race on a yearly basis – got a helping of everything important and everything they would have missed from 2020, or at least as much as they could have in a four-hour crash course.

From the pre-race segments, we all went into the race ready to watch Kyle Larson’s return to NASCAR and Bubba Wallace’s first race under a team co-owned by Michael Jordan.

Then Denny Hamlin swept both stages of the race trying to be the first driver to ever win the Daytona 500 three times in a row.

Those storylines set up an interesting and unexpected race, particularly with respect to strategy in the race’s final laps.

With the amount of cars left in the race, the manufacturers were strict to stick together when pitting under the green flag. But, long-pitting and coming out of pit lane so far away from one another pretty much lost the Toyota’s – and Hamlin’s – shot to win without a late-race caution.

Bubba had the loose wheel that essentially took away his shot, but that can be attributed to that long-pit strategy, too. At the very least, he showed all day that he had a car capable of winning–something I don’t think RPM could say much of.

And Larson was right up there with the best of them. Out of anything to expect all day, that was one of the only things I would have gotten right. He was scored unofficially in P10, but I believe that will be changed when official scoring comes out.

Speaking of the final results, we saw two Spire Motorsport cars in the top 10, as well as Ryan Preece driving an unchartered No. 37 car to a sixth-place finish in what should be a big help to his JTG Daugherty Racing team.

The whole day was action packed.

Was it exactly the way I thought it was going to turn out or even remotely close to it?

Probably not, but that’s Daytona, and that’s what’s made superspeedway racing what it is over the past decade. I wouldn’t change that for the world.