Sunday marked the beginning of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Season. “The Great American Race” was a nail bitter all the way up to the Green-White-Checker overtime finish. Four-time Cup Series Champ Jeff Gordon held off a late race charge by fan favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win his third Daytona 500.
Bothered by mechanical malfunctions all day, Earnhardt, Jr. was able to surge towards the front in the waning laps of the race, coming from 30th position to eventually going back and forth for first with Gordon when a caution came out freezing the field.
Gordon also had to fight off a treacherous final 20 laps of the race, where 17 of the 43-car field were involved in multiple wrecks.
“Those are the moments that you live for, the moments we get paid the big bucks for,” Gordon said in an Associated Press interview. “You live to be in that position, to have chaos happening all around you, for your car to lead the pack.
“I enjoy being in that position. Being out front is the only place to be. I wanted that checkered flag really bad. I looked in my mirror and did everything I could.”
The race included a number of spectacular wrecks including one in which Scott Wimmer flipped his car into a vertical position and spun around four times before landing right side up.
Daytona is one of two raceways where NASCAR requires cars to have horsepower-sapping restrictor plates. The metal plates have four holes drilled in them and are installed between the carburetor and the intake manifold to lower the 700 horsepower engines down to approximately 450 horses. This is done to lower speeds to a safe level, but puts more emphasis on aerodynamics.
Defending Nextel Cup Champion Kurt Busch, last year’s Daytona 500 winner Earnhardt, Jr., Scott Riggs, and Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
Two veterans making their final appearance on the NASCAR circuit this season, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace, made a respectable showing finishing 6th and 10th, respectively. The race also marked the first time that brothers Rusty, Kenny and Mike Wallace all made the field for the same Nextel Cup Race.
Another NASCAR first was the sanctioning body removing restrictions prohibiting hard liquor companies from sponsoring teams. Previously only beer and malt beverage manufacturers could sponsor teams, but now many race teams are bringing on liquor companies to sponsor their cars.
This year also marks the return of the Dodge Charger to the NASCAR field. The manufacturer switched to the new car from the Dodge Intrepid this season.
The race is the start of the 2005 NASCAR Season, which is Nextel’s second year as the title sponsor of the series. This year also marks the second season of the highly debated playoff system, “The Chase for the Nextel Cup,” where only the top ten drivers in points standings are eligible to win the series in a playoffs during the last 10 races of the season.
Next Sunday, NASCAR drivers will hit the California Speedway, a 2.0-mile D-shaped oval located in Fontana, California for the Auto Club 500. Last year’s winner was Jeff Gordon.
