DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch exited the medical center at Daytona International Speedway and asked a question.
“Who won?” he said. “I don’t even know who lucked into it.”
He was told Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had won the Daytona 500.
“There you have it,” Busch said.
[Ricky Stenhouse Jr. an unlikely winner in unpredictable and historic Daytona 500]
Such is the feeling of many of the drivers who didn’t win the sport’s biggest race. Some might not have been as sour as Busch considering that Stenhouse has a group of friends among the driver corps.
But for Busch and Austin Dillon, it was a frustrating end to a week when they had great cars and hoped to put Richard Childress Racing in victory lane.
2023 Daytona 500 Highlights
With two laps to go, a crash that featured Austin Dillon caused overtime. In overtime, another crash helped Ricky Stenhouse Jr. win the Daytona 500.
There were maybe only two drivers who weren’t too frustrated despite seeing their days end in a crash. Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time Cup champion who is returning to Cup for a handful of races after two seasons in IndyCar, felt good about his experience despite finishing 31st.
“I don’t know what went wrong in my lane in front of me, but before I knew it I saw the side of the 24 car and I knew that we were going to be in big trouble,” Johnson said. “I almost got through it.
“All in all, just a fun day. It was great to get some reps and be back in the mix, run in the top-5 and top-10. I had a blast.”
And Travis Pastrana, the action sports star, was stoked to lead a lap and finish 11th despite some damage on the last lap.
“When I was a lap down and almost two laps down, I was sad,” Pastrana said. “That made me feel that we weren’t going to accomplish the goal of being in the mix.
“From then to my end, where my team didn’t give up on me, that was cool.”
Pastrana said he would not do another Cup race, that he’s not a good enough oval and pavement racer to do it consistently and recognizes the dedication that it would take.
“We got a 14th at the Daytona 500,” Pastrana said. “Awesome.”
Pastrana was then told he was 11th.
“Even better,” Pastrana said with a smile.
Travis Pastrana on his Daytona 500 run
Travis Pastrana summed up his thoughts on racing in the Daytona 500. He was happy with his finish and says and doesn’t plan on racing in Cup again.
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The race capped a wild week for Pastrana, who raced a modified on a dirt track (and won), raced in the NASCAR truck race Friday and made his Cup debut in the sport’s biggest event.
“As excited as I am right now, I might sleep for the next week,” Pastrana said. “I am mentally and physically completely drained.”
Busch probably wishes he could go to sleep for a long time after the disappointing end.
Busch, now 0-for-18 in the Daytona 500, was leading the race on Lap 200, the scheduled finish. But he couldn’t survive an overtime restart and wound up 19th after being caught up in a crash on the final restart.
Going into the overtime restart, Busch didn’t have the feeling he was going to win the race.
“I don’t think you’re ever confident,” he said.
Busch and Dillon were 1-2 when the caution came out with fewer than two laps to go. Dillon restarted beside Busch and their plan was to work together with fellow Chevy driver William Byron to stay out front.
Dillon got behind Busch to set up a front pack of Chevys on the inside line. But instead of using that to their advantage, they got shuffled back soon after the restart and Dillon would soon be spinning.
“It looked like it was kind of working, but we got too much separation off of [Turn] 2, and I tried to back up to get to them and when they hit me, it got me really squirrely,” Busch said.
“Then Austin checked up and the accordion happens and everybody is running over everybody.”
Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 winner, said he should have stayed in the other lane.
“I probably should have been a little more selfish at that point,” Dillon said. “I just wish we tried to block both lanes. … It sucks because you were that close to winning a second Daytona 500 and your teammate was really close to winning his first ever.
“We’ll take it and move on. We did it with not the fastest cars, truthfully. It was just execution, and we didn’t finish off the last part.”
Austin Dillon on his wreck at Daytona 500
Austin Dillon offers his thoughts on both he and teammate Kyle Busch wrecking at the end of the Daytona 500.
Dillon felt a hard push from Brad Keselowski caused the wreck.
“It’s kind of what he does,” Dillon said. “His car is good enough that he just drives through whoever he needs to and push them out of the way or wreck them. … He’s just doing everything he can to get back up there.
“They had the car to beat, and we had gotten by him and put him in a rough situation.”
Dillon ended up wrecked later in the lap and then Busch was wrecked on the final lap of the race.
“I think this is the first time I led Lap 200,” Busch said. “I wish it was 1998 rules [with no overtime]. Just par for the course. Used to it.
“I come down here every year to just find out when and where I’m going to crash and what lap I come out of the care center.”
Thinking Out Loud
The biggest frustration of the weekend was that none of the three national series races at Daytona ended under green.
The truck race was shortened because of a heavy mist. Then accidents on the final laps of the Xfinity and Cup races resulted in NASCAR throwing the caution.
While unfortunate, both of those accidents included hard hits where NASCAR needed to slow the cars down so there could be more time for drivers still in the pack to react. And NASCAR needed to start moving safety equipment.
Some would say on the final lap that NASCAR should let the drivers race back to the line. But if safety is NASCAR’s top priority, as it often says, then this is a situation in which NASCAR needs to continue to practice what it preaches and throw the caution when necessary on the final lap.
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Stat of the Day
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had not finished in the top-5 in his 11 previous Daytona 500 starts.
They Said It
“This is unbelievable.” —Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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