Michael McDowell Wins the Daytona 500

UNBELIEVABLE. Michael McDowell earned the win in Sunday night’s 63rd running of the Daytona 500.

As they were coming to the finish, McDowell pushed Brad Keselowski and sent him into Joey Logano. Logano and Keselowski spun at the front of the field and a massive wreck on the last lap led to McDowell winning the Daytona 500.

Logano went left while Keselowski took the brunt of the hits from drivers like Kyle Busch who came barreling into the No. 2 Ford. Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindric also ended up in the crash. A huge wreck forced the caution flag to fly. When the yellow flag flew, McDowell was the guy out front.

McDowell wins his first ever NASCAR Cup Series race by leading only one lap. Once again Front Row Motorsports is near the front of a superspeedway race. This time they win the biggest race of the season. It’s the third victory for the team in their Cup Series tenure.

Last year’s Cup Series Champion, Chase Elliott took second and Austin Dillon rounds out the podium for the Daytona 500. All the drivers in the last lap wreck were able to get out of their cars.

Take a look at the accident that brought out the caution flag at the end of the #DAYTONA500. pic.twitter.com/M7AUZJ1c1C

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 15, 2021

Early Big One

Alex Bowman led the field to green after winning the pole on Wednesday night. A lap three tribute of Dale Earnhardt was slowed after, 1990 Daytona 500 champion, Derricke Cope brought out the first caution of the day. Following the restart, a few more laps ticked away before the ‘Big One’ happened.

Christopher Bell gave a push to Aric Almirola down the back stretch. His push sent Almirola’s No. 10 sideways at the front of the field. 16 cars piled into one another bringing out the caution for the second time in the race. This caution collected so many good cars and contenders. Almirola, Alex Bowman, the pole sitter, Ryan Blaney, Matt DiBenedetto, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Chris Buescher, Anthony Alfredo, Daniel Suarez and David Ragan all were retired from the race in the lap 14 crash.

On a normal Sunday, some of these cars would be able to keep going with minimal damage. Due to the rain from the weekend the grass was wet and it tore up some cars who ended up going through the grass. A very tough start to the 2021 season for many of the series’ top contenders.

.@NASCARONFOX takes a closer look at what caused this multi-car accident. #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/sS8wJkt9La

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 14, 2021

While under the caution, lightning came into the area. NASCAR ended up bringing cars down pit road for a weather delay. For the second year in a row, Mother Nature played a factor in the Daytona 500. Shortly after bringing cars down pit road it started to rain and rain hard. The weather set in and it caused a lengthy delay and hope was nearly lost. Many thought the event wouldn’t get to restart on Sunday. With more weather cells in the area and the length it was going to take to dry the track many felt the day was washed out.

However, NASCAR had other plans. Following the lengthy rain delay, NASCAR’s track drying crew went to work and was able to get the track dry. This allowed for the race to finally be restarted just after 9:00pm ET.

Racing Returns Following Weather

Quinn Houff and Chase Briscoe got together only a few laps back green. This brought out the third caution of the race and would end the day for Houff. When it restarted, Austin Dillon took the quick lead before three-time and back to back defending Daytona 500 champion, Denny Hamlin would get a push to the lead.

Hamlin had many challengers for the top spot but things settled down for the remainder of Stage 1. There was some jostling for position behind him but nothing for Hamlin in first. During his lead in the later portion of Stage 1, Hamlin became one of the all-time lap leaders at Daytona. Last season, Hamlin led the series in stage wins and starts off the new year with the first stage win up for grabs.

Starting Stage 2, not much change happened up top the leaderboard. Overall it was a very calm stage unlike the first. There was a caution for an incident involving Bell again. Bell cut a left rear tire and made contact with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. It caused Bell to slide down to the infield but didn’t hit anything.

Stenhouse slid up the track and grazed the left side of Kyle Larson’s car that cut his left rear tire. It also put the No. 5 car into the wall but didn’t do enough damage to take any of those three drivers out of the race. While those cars were wrecking up front, Jamie McMurray slid across the asphalt on the inside of the track as well.

Kaz Grala also had his own issues during the fifth caution of the race. His Kaulig Racing Chevy caught fire in the right rear of the car around the tire. What appeared to be a brake rotor and wheel bearing fire saw the whole right rear go ablaze. He tried to go back out on the track and was able to make another lap before being called back in for more fire. This would retire him from the race.

As the stage came to a close, Hamlin paced the field again with laps winding down. It got interesting late as drivers got up on the wheel. With chaos nearly taking place as Kevin Harvick, Wallace and others coming hard for the lead. Hamlin was able to jump to the high side and get back out front as the green-checkered flew to end stage 2. Both stages end the same way with Hamlin winning them. He also took over No. 5 in laps led at Daytona.

Race to the Finish

Stage 3 was pretty uneventful for the majority of it. Logano would lead the majority of the laps in the final stage and as laps wound down things would start to mix up. Runs and drafting help wouldn’t come up to anything with five laps to go. The parade went on until the final lap when all things broke loose.

Logano and Keselowski took the white flag ahead of McDowell and Dillon. As they went to the back stretch, Keselowski went to make a run but was unable to get by Logano on the first try. McDowell gave the No. 2 Ford a shove and it was too much as he went into Logano and the Team Penske teammates went from leading to spinning and crashing in a matter of seconds.

McDowell would take over the lead with Elliott and Dillon in hot pursuit but the caution flag came out and froze the field. That caution gave McDowell the victory, his first of his career. An unfortunate end for many but elation for the Arizona native McDowell who has won NASCAR’s biggest race.

McDowell becomes the eighth driver to win his first career Cup Series race at the Daytona 500. He is the first since 2011 when Trevor Bayne shocked the world in the Daytona 500. It wasn’t long ago that McDowell was running in start and park cars and now he’s a Daytona 500 champion.

Michael McDowell joined @SCabbage9 & me like 8 years ago on the @iowaspeedway pre-race show on @1460kxno. Asked him why he kept grinding in Cup only to start and park with zero chance to win. He said “you have to be there to eventually get a shot.” Now he’s a Daytona 500 champ.

— Chris Williams (@ChrisMWilliams) February 15, 2021