Why I watched…
ARCA’s offering promised to showcase 19-year old Darrell Wallace Jr, who has a lot of folks gushing but I had yet to lay eyes on him. Seemed a good enough reason as any to watch some stock cars at the big track to open the new season. Other tidbits included a 78-year old James Hylton beginning his 50th and final season, Bobby Gerhart was seeking his 9th win in this race, while Frank Kimmel sought his 77th career win but his first at Daytona. Still, the very fact they were running stock cars at Daytona to break the two month hiatus seemed a good enough reason to me.
The race…
Daytona is one of those tracks that just lends itself to stimulating visuals, with those high banks and close formation racing. Even when it lacks drama, it still is cool to watch.
We had the unexpected in the late going. It appeared Bobby Gerhart was cruising to a win comfortably up front, but that changed with six laps to go. Earlier, from the broadcast booth, Kyle Busch observed that Gerhart might have bolted from pit row before getting a full tank and he proved prophetic when the 8-time race winner coughed and sputtered with six laps remaining to wind up parked and 28th.
We had some drama, when we saw Darrell Wallace Jr race for all of 19 laps. Too bad about the folks checking in front of him, which caused him to bump Justin Boston. When Boston’s car swerved right back to return the favor, Wallace was out of the race. At least he gets to return to run in the NASCAR truck series on Friday.
Frenchman Julien Jousse was blowing water from the start, did not get it cooled on the track and did not pit so it came as no surprise to see him blow up after ten laps. If the goal was to blow engine parts everywhere and go up in flames, they succeeded brilliantly.
On the downside, those two early cautions brought us lots of caution laps, some delay in getting the field back in order, and a lot of commercials to watch. As I watch the race between 30 minutes and an hour behind live time so I can analyze the race as I go, the PVR is my friend. If you were watching it live, it had to be painful.
Of note, the first lap was led by a woman. Milka Duno was there on the first lap, but the 40-year old Venezuelan filtered back as things progressed to wind up 29th at the end of 80 laps.
Frank Kimmel led the second pack, well behind the leaders, to finish fourth. James Hylton, who began his career as a mechanic for Rex White when he won the Cup title back in 1960, was 25th.
In the end, it came down to 23-year old Georgian John Wes Townley trying to stave off 20-year old Nationwide rookie Kyle Larson for the win. Thanks to a trio of lapped cars on the final lap we did not get to see any last moment drama at the finish line.
Rating this race (7/10)
The fact I did not feel compelled to fast forward through the action must mean something. It might have been the main thing, but also the unexpected element that kept Gerhart from walking away with the win in the end rewarded me for watching.
