The biggest race of the year kicks off the NASCAR season and Kurt Busch won it yesterday (2/26) in the 59th Daytona 500!
The changes for the 2017 NASCAR season including the new top series name of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series were completely unveiled in the 2017 edition of the “Great American Race” at Daytona International Speedway.
The new three-segment racing for points in my opinion played a pivotal role in the way this race unfolded. There were a few big crashes that left some 15 cars out of the race before the finish. There were only a handful of cars that might have made it through the entire race with no damage of any kind.
The race was one again this year by a last lap pass. Kurt Busch had not led even a single lap until he took the lead on lap 200 and held on to it until he raced under the checkered flag to claim his first ever Daytona 500 win.
Ryan Blaney was able to grab the runner-up finish with AJ Allmendinger crossing the finish line third. Aric Almirola took home a fourth place finish with Paul Menard rounding out the top five in the race. See the complete Daytona 500 race results here.
With the new “three-segment” racing, even though this is the first points race of the season the race results are NOT mirrored in the point standings. The win does give Kurt Busch the top spot in the NASCAR standings and Ryan Blaney also holds the same spot in the point standings as he finished the race, second. This is where the extra points for the segment racing factor in to make the standings different than the race results. Joey Logano sits in the third place for the standings with Kevin Harvick in fourth and AJ Allmendinger in fifth place. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
The drivers that were caught up in on track incidents that took them out of the Daytona 500 will have the chance to right their season Sunday afternoon, March 5th in the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
By: Buck Stevens
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW PHOTOS
59th Daytona 500
-
- (Photo courtesy of NASCARmedia.com/Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
