Junior unseats teammate Johnson; Hamlin impresses with strong Speedweeks
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First Four Out
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Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick have had success at Phoenix
Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick have the most career Sprint Cup Series wins at Phoenix International Raceway with four each. Harvick got his last Phoenix Cup win in 2013 during the track’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, a race he has won two straight years. The win was also his last victory with Richard Childress Racing, before his offseason move to Stewart-Haas Racing. Johnson’s last Cup win at Phoenix came in 2009 and completed a stretch where he had won four of five races at the desert track. Three of Johnson’s Phoenix wins came in Chase races and in those three years (2007, 2008 and 2009), he went on to win the series championship.
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Enter Article Subhead
Countless pieces of multi-colored confetti still stuck to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s race car when it was rolled Monday morning into the visitor’s center at Daytona International Speedway, where tradition mandates it will sit on display for the next year. That routine bit of business was enough to bring the whole celebration flooding back once again, from the driver’s celebratory screams over the radio, to the owner’s ride on the window ledge, to the raucous festivities that followed in Victory Lane.
No doubt, this one was big. Earnhardt’s second Daytona 500 triumph, one decade after his first, so resonated with NASCAR’s most popular driver that he entered the media center whooping, and with arms held high. He can’t talk about it enough, as evidenced by his unabashed enthusiasm for a post-race promotional tour some have merely tolerated. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, and he wants everyone to know it, which in and of itself should tell you something about what this means to the man at the center of it all.
And yet, this past Sunday night wasn’t the first time that Earnhardt has scored a landmark victory. For all the criticism the guy has taken in recent years for not winning enough — something he now has an opportunity to silence once and for all — he’s certainly had a knack for making those triumphs count. So with the scent of all that sprayed Victory Lane champagne still lingering in the air, there’s no better time to look back at the 10 biggest race victories of Earnhardt’s career — so far.
Despite possibly ruffling feathers and a few close calls, the rookie and team call the race a success
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — He put the hammer down and somehow avoided the big wreck at the end. He made not one, but two impressive saves where his dirt-track background paid dividends — though he also may have inadvertently rattled a few cages en route to a top-10 finish.
The No. 3’s return to NASCAR’s top level was an adventure, and ultimately deemed a success by the Richard Childress Racing team that brought it back to the premier series for the first time since Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash at Daytona International Speedway 13 years ago. Austin Dillon started on the pole, led exactly one lap — the first one — and used a few evasive maneuvers Sunday to drive his way to a ninth-place result in the Daytona 500.
The 23-year-old rookie weathered a pair of scrapes, one where he made contact with fellow NASCAR Sprint Cup Series freshman Kyle Larson, and another where he banged into teammate Ryan Newman. But he also kept it straight in escaping a big crash involving Danica Patrick, somehow saved it after a big fishtail in Turn 2, and at the end took advantage of a fast-moving bottom line to sail past the last-lap accident and into the top 10.
As far as the No. 3 team was concerned, it was mission accomplished.
"Yeah, it is a success," Dillon said. "I was a little disappointed I got my teammate there, but everything happened so quick, and I got into his rear bumper and just turned him. That was unfortunate. But proud of my guys. … We’ve just got to build on this. Got a lot to go. The yellow stripes were out there tonight, you could tell. I wasn’t getting much help tonight out there. It’s just, you’re kind of at the mercy of those guys around you. I definitely felt the mercy of those yellow stripes."
Dillon led the opening lap, marking the first time the No. 3 has paced a circuit in the Daytona 500 since Earnhardt led Lap 183 in his final race here 13 years ago. It was a pressure-filled week for the grandson of team owner Childress, who used the No. 3 during championship campaigns in the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series, and was the biggest proponent of bringing the number — which had been his granddad’s before it had been Earnhardt’s — with him up to the Sprint Cup Series.
Given all that, and the fishbowl of attention that had encompassed the No. 3 team since winning the pole a week earlier, Dillon and his crew seemed more than pleased with the final result.
"That was great. He learned a lot tonight," crew chief Gil Martin said. "It looked like we were in a couple of altercations, but one of them was an accordion thing, and one of them was in the middle of the corner down there — you run out of room in this place. All in all, I think he did a great job. Maybe we were a little too conservative tonight. But in the big picture, coming out of here with a top 10 … all in all, we couldn’t have had a better Speedweeks. If somebody had written the script for us before we came down here in January, one: I would have taken it, and two: I wouldn’t have believed it."
Dillon’s long day into night, separated by a six-hour rain delay, wasn’t without incident. Shortly before the midway point Dillon nipped the back end of Larson’s car when the two vehicles were in pack traffic. "My fault. I will not let that happen again," spotter Andy Houston told his driver over the radio, while Dillon chalked it up to tight racing. Later Dillon made contact with Newman when one line of cars stacked up in the draft. "You were all jammed up," Houston told him. "Nothing you could do there."
He did plenty in a pair of saves that kept his hopes of a strong finish intact. Dillon had to get creative when his car got loose in Turn 2, going "lock to lock" — as far as the wheel will turn in both directions — to keep the vehicle straight. Earlier he squirted through a 13-car pileup, taking only minor damage in an accident that sent Danica Patrick hard into the wall. "A little Volusia County (Speedway) dirt racing saved you, Austin," Childress told him over the radio.
"He got sideways backward and just kept driving," said Mike Dillon, Austin’s father and RCR’s general manager. "That was awesome. That was good driving. You’ve got to keep driving them when you wreck, and you can’t give up. He drove himself back out of that one, where he could have backed it into the fence."
At the end, with a six-car wreck unfolding around him, Dillon was able to find enough space to get to the finish relatively unscathed.
"I felt I was a pinball here for a while. Glad we came out in the top 10," he said. And now it’s on to Phoenix, where the No. 3 team hopes Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Daytona 500 victory will steal much of the spotlight, allowing them to be just another program helping a rookie driver find his footing at the sport’s top level.
"I hope so," Martin said. "There’s still going to be some. Each week it’s going to linger on. With Junior winning tonight, that will take a lot of pressure off Austin, because everybody’s going to be on Junior, and that’s going to be off Austin. We want to kind of fade back over like this team’s accustomed to. Just fade right off so nobody’s paying attention to what we’re doing, click some finishes off, and get him some experience."
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wild Daytona 500 |
WATCH: Dale Jr.
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WATCH: Danica, a dozen
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READ: Official Daytona 500
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Fans flock to NASCAR’s second screen platforms to stay up to speed with Daytona 500
Daytona Beach, Fla. (Feb., 24, 2014) — A rain delay during the 56th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday — not to mention a second win in the Great American Race by NASCAR’s 11-time Most Popular Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. — had fans flocking to NASCAR’s second screen products in huge numbers for updates and exclusive content. The heavy traffic resulted in record numbers for NASCAR Digital Media’s platforms since the sanctioning body regained control of its digital rights in 2013.
The combined year-over-year (YOY) increases in traffic on NASCAR.com, NASCAR Mobile, NASCAR RACEVIEW MOBILE and NASCAR’s mobile website during the Daytona 500 are as follows:
• +39% in unique visitors
• +61% total visits to the platform
• +25% video views
• +131% page views
"One of the most important things we learned in year one of the new platform was that more and more people are turning to mobile devices and second screen products to consume NASCAR content," said Colin Smith, managing director, NASCAR Digital Media. "Yesterday’s traffic is indicative of Earnhardt’s popularity as well as a testament to the enhancements we continue to make, both on mobile and NASCAR.com."
In addition, more fans logged onto NASCAR’s digital properties throughout the race weekend, starting with the Thursday’s Budweiser Duel and ending with Sunday’s Daytona 500. The combined increases in traffic to NASCAR.com, NASCAR Mobile, NASCAR RACEVIEW MOBILE and NASCAR’s mobile site from Thursday through Sunday this season compared to the same timeframe last season are as follows:
• +10% in unique visitors
• +18% in total visits
• +44% in video views
• +72% in page views
Finally, unexpected downtime during the 2014 Daytona 500 encouraged more fans to check NASCAR Mobile for on-track updates. The YOY increase in usage is as follows:
• +51% unique visitors
• +96% total visits
Additional NASCAR Digital Media highlights are as follows:
• NASCAR Digital Media’s platforms served up a total of 37 million page views from Thursday, Feb. 20 through Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, which is a 72% increase over 2013.
• The NASCAR Mobile and NASCAR RACEVIEW MOBILE apps have now recorded 2.9 million total downloads since their launch in 2013.
• Both apps combined received 235,000 new downloads the week of the 2014 Daytona 500.
• Fantasy entries are currently up +25% YOY against 2013.
NASCAR also saw success on the social media front during the 2014 Speedweeks. See below:
• Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014 marked the highest overall single-day social volume since NASCAR launched its Fan & Media Engagement Center (FMEC), up 67% YOY during race.
• The 2014 Daytona 500 generated more than 86,000 social posts for the 15 minutes around the checkered flag, which was the highest peak volume seen so far by FMEC — and up 76% YOY during the same period of last year’s Daytona 500.
• According to Nielsen SocialGuide, a total of 6.55 million people saw 623,000 tweets about the 2014 Daytona 500. On average, each person in the Twitter TV audience saw 10.65 tweets about the race, which is the highest per person average for any sport event on the same day. The 2014 Daytona 500 was the number two daytime sports event for the month of February ranked by Twitter TV audience and had more tweets than any episode of the 2014 Winter Olympics except the opening ceremony.
Tune in to the next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season race at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, March 2 at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio™ and NASCAR RACEVIEW MOBILE on your mobile devices. Visit NASCAR.com for additional race day coverage.
Moments that changed the course of the Great American Race
DALE EARNHARDT JR. HOLDS OFF DENNY HAMLIN FOR DAYTONA 500 WIN
In a race that started in broad daylight and ended 42 minutes before midnight, and with a swatch of tape covering part of his grille, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the rain-interrupted 56th running of the Daytona 500 Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway.
Earnhardt was a car-length ahead of Denny Hamlin when NASCAR threw the seventh caution of the race a split second before Earnhardt crossed the finish line to win the Great American Race for the second time in his career.
‘BIG ONE’ STRIKES FOLLOWING LENGTHY RAIN DELAY
The intensity climbed in Sunday’s primetime version of the Daytona 500 following nearly a six and a half hour rain delay, which produced some of the best racing of the night, but it also sparked the perfect recipe for the dreaded "big one" at Daytona International Speedway.
After running 99 laps consecutively under the green flag following the red flag, chaos erupted on the frontstretch on Lap 146 when Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick drifted up the track and made contact with Brian Scott, who then made contact with Aric Almirola, which flared a chain-reaction incident that involved 13 cars total.
Including Almirola, Harvick and Scott, were the cars of Justin Allgaier, Marcos Ambrose, polesitter Austin Dillon, David Gilliland, Kasey Kahne, Parker Kligerman, Danica Patrick, Paul Menard, Michael Waltrip and Josh Wise.
Patrick, who led two laps in Sunday’s night "Great American Race," suffered the hardest blow of the casualties, hitting the outside wall hard in her No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet that ultimately resulted in a 35th-place finish. She climbed from her car dejected, but uninjured.
CONTACT BETWEEN RCR TEAMMATES SETS UP FRANTIC FINISH
On Lap 194, contact between Dillon and the No. 31 Chevrolet of RCR teammate Ryan Newman ignited a seven-car wreck in Turn 3 that set up the wild finish. Earnhardt, who was in the lead, ran over the swatch of Bear Bond (tape) from Newman’s car under the yellow and tried in vain to remove the tape by driving within inches of the pace car.
The NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.
With Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. likely in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
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Official news release | Changes explained | Chase Facts and FAQ | Social buzz | Bracket (PDF)
RELATED: Full coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format changes
Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his second Daytona 500 victory on a long, soggy Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, securing NASCAR’s biggest race on its grandest stage. But he also likely punched his ticket for another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series prize in the season-long fight.
Earnhardt became the first winner in the new format for determining the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason format, virtually assuring the sport’s 11-time Most Popular Driver a berth in the playoffs.
NASCAR expanded the Chase field to 16 drivers during the offseason, making a victory in the 26-race regular season a near-clincher for the 10-race Chase.
"Yeah, (now) we don’t have to think about it," said Earnhardt, who placed fifth in the 2013 Sprint Cup standings. "If everyone is telling the truth, and we’ve won a race, we’re going to be in it. … We’re going for the jugular this year."
The Chase format will also include three stages of eliminations, culminating with a four-driver shootout in the season finale this November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
But the more immediate impact of the offseason changes were felt in Victory Lane at Daytona.
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France reminded the 43 contestants in the pre-race drivers’ meeting that more long-term goals were at stake in in the season-opening event.
"Not only is this the most important day for NASCAR, the Daytona 500," France said, "it’s also the first chance, the first opportunity to punch your ticket for our version of the playoffs."
Earnhardt laid first claim to a playoff berth. Fifteen more spots are up for grabs in the regular season, starting next Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
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wild Daytona 500 |
WATCH: Dale Jr.
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WATCH: Danica, a dozen
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Two-time Daytona 500 winner hungry for more success
MORE: Race recap | Dale Jr. joins Twitter | Follow his media tour
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Appearing remarkably refreshed in spite of limited sleep, and with the prospect of a weeklong media tour staring him in the face, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he believes the time has come for he and his team to rise to the occasion.
"I think it’s our time. This is our year," the two-time Daytona 500 winner said Monday morning during the annual champion’s breakfast at Daytona International Speedway.
"Every year we’ve gotten marginally better," said Earnhardt Jr., now a 20-time winner in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. “It just seems that we would continue to do that this year. We ain’t got far to go before we’re one of the best teams, if we’re not already.
"Being able to start the season with a win certainly solidifies my belief in our team. We ended last year finishing second (at Homestead); we were one of the best teams in the Chase, one of the more competitive teams when the season wrapped up. If we just continue on our path to improving, we don’t have far to go. We should be winning races. That’s the way I felt in the offseason. Then we come right out of the gate and win one."
The victory certainly put Earnhardt Jr. in a strong position. With NASCAR’s new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format all but guaranteeing race winners a spot in the 10-race playoff, the road for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team, led by crew chief Steve Letarte, suddenly got a lot smoother.
Sunday night’s win in the season-opening event snapped a 55-race winless streak by the sport’s most popular driver. But that doesn’t mean Earnhardt Jr. is easing off the throttle anytime soon.
"I’m going to fight every week," he said. "We’ve got a great opportunity to be already in the Chase. Going off last year’s points system we would have won the championship, so we know under this current format that we can do the job. So I feel real good about it."
Letarte, who will leave the pit box to join NBC in the television booth next season, said getting the win out of the way early could make for a much less stressful final year.
"I think this is going to make a much more relaxing summer hopefully with the new points system and all, and we can go out and get some wins," he said.
"This race is such a big deal. … You grow up in racing and the Daytona 500, maybe the Indy 500, maybe Le Mans, that’s like the three that’s the world of racing. To think we have the chance to win it, the whole thing’s pretty surreal.
"I mean, what races do you still celebrate the next day? You have a breakfast, and keep getting trophies and jackets. I’m just proud of the team that we’ve assembled, they’re a great group of guys (and) they deserve most of the credit. They built a great race car, Dale drove a great race."
Team owner Rick Hendrick signed Earnhardt Jr. prior to the 2008 season and has felt the brunt of the Junior Nation wondering when its driver was going to contend for wins and titles.
Winning the Daytona 500, he said, buys him a bit of a reprieve.
"I get six days that the Earnhardt fans don’t ask me ‘when’s he going to win again?’" Hendrick said. "So I’ve got a vacation until Phoenix."
Hendrick called the 56th running of the Daytona 500 "a perfect race."
"He drove the wheels off the car every lap, Stevie called the perfect race, pit stops were perfect, T.J. (Majors) did a unbelievable job up there spotting.
"I think back to the first (time) when we came down here and (Earnhardt Jr.) won the qualifier and then the Shootout and we thought we were going to win the 500. But (last night) was a great night, great for the sport, great for the fans and I’m glad to be a part of it."
• How did the most recent Daytona 500 winner spend his evening?
"I was taking pictures and doing media until 3 (a.m.) or so probably," Earnhardt Jr. said of his media obligations. "The team was having most of the fun. When I got over there they were out of ‘spirits’ so we found some more. We just sat around and talked about how cool it was, just punching each other in the shoulder until about 4. Then I had to hang it up. I was hitting the wall. I knew I needed to at least get an hour (sleep) before I could come up here and talk with any kind of sense. And I knew I had a long day.
"The guys got to have some fun last night but we probably won’t really be able to hang loose, raise hell until we go home or we go to Vegas. Most of the crew will travel from Phoenix to Vegas so we might have some fun out there."
• Following today’s breakfast, Earnhardt Jr. headed to New York City for more media obligations, and will travel to Bristol, Conn., for appearances on ESPN.
From there, it’s on to Austin, Texas, Las Vegas and then on to Phoenix for the season’s second race.
"I’m looking forward to it," he said. "I’m going to enjoy it. We won a big race and we put a lot of effort into it. And I’m going to make sure everybody hears about it."
MORE:
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wild Daytona 500 |
WATCH: Dale Jr.
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WATCH: Danica, a dozen
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READ: Official Daytona 500
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Check out the stats for the drivers in the second race of the Sprint Cup Series season
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Below is a look at some of the top statistical performers at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona going into The Profit on CNBC 500 on March 2. FOX’s coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET and the race is scheduled for 3 p.m.
| Driver | Points | Wins | Poles | Week | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 48 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 133.1 |
| 2. Denny Hamlin | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 113.8 |
| 3. Brad Keselowski | 42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 117.1 |
| 4. Jeff Gordon | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102.7 |
| 5. Jimmie Johnson | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 101.2 |
| 6. Matt Kenseth | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 98.2 |
| 7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72.0 |
| 8. Greg Biffle | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 94.1 |
| 9. Austin Dillon | 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 83.4 |
| 10. Casey Mears | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80.8 |
| 11. Joey Logano | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104.1 |
| 12. Kevin Harvick | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 85.1 |
| 13. Jamie McMurray | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73.8 |
| 14. Bobby Labonte | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46.2 |
| 15. Reed Sorenson | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69.3 |
| 16. Carl Edwards | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 87.0 |
| Rank | Driver | Races | Poles | Wins | Top Fives | Top 10s | DNFs | Average Finish | Driver Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 23 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 17 | 84 |
| 2 | Denny Hamlin | 17 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 10.9 | 98.2 |
| 3 | Brad Keselowski | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 17.1 | 85.9 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 30 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 3 | 11.5 | 99.4 |
| 5 | Jimmie Johnson | 21 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 17 | 0 | 6.3 | 116.7 |
| 6 | Matt Kenseth | 23 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 17.4 | 86.1 |
| 7 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 72.9 |
| 8 | Greg Biffle | 20 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 13.9 | 91.6 |
| 9 | Austin Dillon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
| 10 | Casey Mears | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 26.2 | 61.1 |
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Driver
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Starting Position
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Finishing Position
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Date
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Danica Patrick
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37
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17
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11/11/2012
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Danica Patrick
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40
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39
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3/3/2013
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Danica Patrick
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32
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33
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11/10/2013
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Track Name
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City
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NSCS
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Phoenix International Raceway
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Avondale
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35
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Arizona State Fairgrounds
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Phoenix
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4
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Tucson Rodeo Grounds
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Tucson
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1
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Daytona 500 pole |
WATCH: Big wreck ends
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WATCH: Massive wreck
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