DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The first Busch Clash to take place on the Daytona Int’l Speedway road course Tuesday night evoked memories of the inaugural race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
In a wild last-lap scramble, Chase Elliott dove into the final chicane, got into race leader Ryan Blaney and spun Blaney around coming to the finish line, leaving Kyle Busch to sneak through and steal the show.
Busch led only the final 400 feet or so to claim the victory in the season-opening, non-points exhibition race for the NASCAR Cup Series that kicked off Daytona Speedweeks at the World Center of Racing.
It marked Busch’s second Clash victory and first since 2012. Ironically, Busch also won that event – which was contested on Daytona’s 2.5-mile oval – with a last-lap pass coming to the checkered flag.
“I knew to keep my head down and keep focused ahead and see if I could keep hitting my marks to get close enough to have a shot like that – if something like that were to materialize,” said Busch in victory lane. “Fortunately it did for us. I can’t say enough about Ben Beshore (crew chief) and this whole M&M’s team – this new M&M’s team. I appreciate what they do for me, along with everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota and TRD.
“It’s awesome to start off the year with a win … a non-points win, yes, but I would love nothing more than to be right here this Sunday (after the Daytona 500).”
With Busch’s score, Joe Gibbs Racing extended its record as the winningest team in Busch Clash history to 10 victories.
Tuesday night’s wild race featured 13 lead changes in 35 laps, including a sequence where the top spot changed hands eight times in a span of nine laps around the 3.61-mile, 14-turn Daytona road course.
The wild final lap was set up by a crash exiting the backstretch chicane, where the leading Toyota driven by Martin Truex Jr. broke loose and spun before slamming into the outside wall.
That necessitated the fourth and final caution of the night, leading to split pit strategy due to teams being limited to just three sets of Goodyear tires to utilize during the 35-lap event.
Elliott, running third at the final yellow, stayed out because he didn’t have any fresh tires to put on his No. 9 Chevrolet. Blaney, meanwhile, was among a large group of cars to fit for new rubber and lined up seventh for the decisive restart.
When the green flag waved, Elliott did his best to build a lead out front, while Blaney put on a quick charge by moving from seventh to third in less than a lap after the restart.
Blaney picked off his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano for second in the international horseshoe, then chased Elliott down from more than a second back over the next lap and a half.
He made the move for the top spot entering the west horseshoe, out-braking Elliott to secure the position and attempting to race away exiting the infield section and going down the backstretch.
Elliott, however, would not let Blaney escape. He stayed within striking distance as the white flag was displayed and made up enough time exiting the bus stop on the backstretch to take one last shot.
That move came entering the chicane off the fourth turn of the oval, with Elliott diving to Blaney’s right, tagging the right-rear corner of Blaney’s Ford and sending the No. 12 spinning in a cloud of smoke.
Elliott came through unscathed, but lost enough momentum that Busch was able to power past on the inside coming to the finish line. The defending Cup champion finished second by .765 seconds.
“Neither one of us won; that’s the biggest issue,” said Elliott. “I was close enough to drive it in there, and I feel like I’d be mad at myself for not at least trying. Obviously, I don’t mean to wreck anybody, especially him. Some guys I wouldn’t mind, but he’s not one of them. Hopefully he’s not too mad at me. I feel like you’ve got to go for it in an event like this in any situation. I can’t be sorry about going for the win, but I certainly didn’t mean to wreck him.
“I drove in there, and that corner gets so tight that I didn’t want to just completely jump the curb to the right, but I feel like I tried to get over there as far as I could,” Elliott added. “At that point we were coming together at the same time. I hate it. We had a fast Llumar Chevrolet in a position to have a shot at it, but we’ll try again on Sunday.”
Joey Logano came back from overheating issues to place third, with Tyler Reddick and William Byron filling out the top five.
Sixth through 10th were Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, reigning Clash winner Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Matt DiBenedetto.
Blaney finally got his car righted and crossed the line 13th, but lamented what could have been after climbing from his car.
“I hate it happened. It didn’t work out for either of us,” Blaney noted. “We were just racing hard and I had a little bit fresher tires there. We saved a set and got back to second there and his car was really good. I had to use up a lot to get to him … and I kind of tried to protect and I drove into the last corner really deep to try to make sure I didn’t get dive bombed like that.
“We just came together there. What are you going to do?”
The finish:
1. Kyle Busch, 2. Chase Elliott, 3. Joey Logano, 4. Tyler Reddick, 5. William Byron, 6. Denny Hamlin, 7. Alex Bowman, 8. Erik Jones, 9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 10. Matt DiBenedetto, 11. Austin Dillon, 12. Aric Almirola, 13. Ryan Blaney, 14. Ryan Newman, 15. Kevin Harvick, 16. Chris Buescher, 17. Brad Keselowski, 18. Ty Dillon, 19. Kurt Busch, 20. Cole Custer, 21. Martin Truex Jr.