(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden
Post-race review and analysis from the NASCAR Xfinity Series opener at Daytona International Speedway.
*Writer not present at the track this week. Observations are from afar.
Who Won?
Michael Annett. The veteran surged to his first series victory in his 230th start.
Who Claimed the Stages?
Justin Haley and Ross Chastain. The Kaulig Racing teammates each showed speed early on, powering through to the lead to claim a stage apiece.
Top Stories
High Lane Train
Friday’s Gander Outdoors Truck Series race was as chaotic as any race held at Daytona in the past two decades, breaking the the trend of tame events that had filled Speedweeks. But Saturday brought back the calm in a big way, with limited passing opportunities and mostly single-file racing until the checkered flag.
Annett’s win came with as few late challenges as any restrictor plate race in the past decade. Teammate Justin Allgaier backed up to third-place runner Brandon Jones for a push and had a go at the Iowan on the final lap, but up until that point Annett was essentially given a free ride to the end as the leaders elected to hold their position instead of making moves to get to the front.
“You could just tell everybody was so scared to get out of line there and then lose the pack,” Jones said afterward. “Me and Justin (Allgaier) just talked after the race and we thought that that 1 (Michael Annett), whenever he tried to swing that block, that was going to be the ticket to get by him. Just not enough momentum.”
The high lane train has been a trend of the this year’s Speedweeks, save for Friday’s Truck Series race. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers have spent the majority of their races up against the wall as well, choosing to ride in both the Advance Auto Parts Clash and the Gander RV Duels. This has led to relatively tame affairs by Superspeedway standards in the final planned race for the old restrictor plate package.
Chase Elliott was the only driver to try the bottom lane continuously on Saturday, making deep dives and moving up a few positions only to be cycled back when a hole to return to the top lane failed to materialize. He radioed his frustration to his No. 8 JR Motorsports team during the race, saying “I just don’t understand what is promoting this top line thing. Nothing changed in these cars, did they?”
The initial blame for the top lane cruise was issued to the drivers. But for Timmy Hill, who spent Saturday afternoon stuck in the pack en-route to a 19th-place result, true attempts at speed on the bottom lane just didn’t seem feasible.
“Many drivers tried the bottom & it flat out wouldn’t work,” he tweeted Saturday. “We had a group of 10 cars go from top lane to the bottom, trying anything with 15 to go and slowed down. So can’t blame the drivers that they don’t want to throw the anchor.”
Saturday’s result has left some within the sport pessimistic heading into Sunday’s Daytona 500. Denny Hamlin shared his thoughts on the racing in a Saturday tweet.
“The preferred line is the one with the most cars in it,” Hamlin said. “You don’t run faster up against the wall. 10 cars in a line up top running say 46.50s, those same cars would run 46.00s if they all committed to running bottom. In the end it seems guys are just happy with a good finish.”
If there’s good news to be gained from that, it’s the fact that Sunday’s race is NASCAR’s ultimate crown jewel. If drivers being content with a good finish has been what’s caused the single-file trains all week, then the allure of the Harley J. Earl trophy should be enough to ramp up the tension and force drivers to the bottom in Sunday’s race.
But if Hill’s right, and the bottom just doesn’t have the speed this year, then getting in position to win the Great American Race could mean sneaking into the top five before the final train to the finish.
Season-Changing Performance
Michael Annett entered the 2019 season after one of the worst years of his career. The Iowan had come to JR Motorsports at the start of 2017 with dreams of chasing race wins and titles for the power team, but in his first two seasons all Annett had to show for his time was one subpar playoff outing in 2017 and a playoff-less struggle in 2018.
The performances stood in stark contrast to Annett’s teammates, who all made deep playoff runs each year – with Tyler Reddick scoring the series title in 2018. So when JRM announced that Annett would return for 2019, fans of the team weren’t shy about criticizing the decision.
Annett heard and understood those critics. He knew 2019 was going to be a make or break year, so he put everything he had into reversing the trend of poor results.
“I earned that criticism and put a lot on myself,” he said. “This off-season I just put everything I had into this team, into this car, into this upcoming season just to make sure there was no variables that we can control and didn’t.”
JRM did everything in its power to position Annett for success. The team brought in crew chief Travis Mack for the veteran, giving him a strong leader atop the box. Annett was given the No. 1 after Elliott Sadler’s retirement – an ode to the sprint car driven by World of Outlaws legend Sammy Swindell, who piloted the No. 1 while driving for Michael’s father, Harrold Annett.
The pieces were there for Annett to bounce back in a big way entering 2019, and he did just that at Daytona. Annett led a career high 45 laps, dominating the closing run to the checkered flag and fending off a challenge from teammate Justin Allgaier to earn a trip to victory lane.
In the same race that left Annett with a broken sternum and three-month hiatus from racing in 2013, the veteran delivered his first win in his 230th Xfinity Series start.
“To come back this weekend after the year we had and to start it the way we did, there’s just been a really good aura around this 1 team,” Annett said. “Now it’s the 1 team. That was awesome. Just everything is going in the right direction. Had a really good feeling sitting in the drivers’ meeting today staring at the trophy, like man, that’s going home with us.”
Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. compared Annett’s win to the end of Michael Waltrip’s lengthy winless streak in his first race as Earnhardt’s teammate at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2001, saying Annett “is not the same person that we hired” and noting his changes over the past several months to position himself for Saturday’s success.
The win was also important for crew chief Travis Mack, who is starting fresh after a difficult 2018 Cup Series campaign with Kasey Kahne at Leavine Family Racing. Both he and Annett entered Speedweeks in need of a career reset.
“I told (Mack), think about what that would feel like to go to Victory Lane with Michael Annett and how that might make you feel as a person and as an individual and in your profession,” Earnhardt said. “They’re realizing that dream, and it’s so awesome to watch. So I’m glad that I’m part of it, and this is a great, great day.”
Saturday’s triumph doesn’t just gain the pair some much-needed momentum – it changes the entire complexion of their season. Annett won’t have to field questions about potentially missing the playoffs as he did last year. He’s already essentially locked in.
There is still much for the No. 1 team to prove. Given the sometimes fluky nature of the racing, a plate race win is only going to quell a certain amount of criticism.
Annett has a victory and a postseason berth. Now he needs to go out and perform well in the tour’s other races to prove that Saturday’s win wasn’t a fluke, and he’s ready to be a legitimate contender.
In the long term Annett and JRM intend to do just that. Saturday’s victory was just the first step.
“We got the 1 in Victory Lane,” Annett said. “Our slogan this year is ‘One team, one dream, one goal.’ This was one of them, so we’re starting off good.”
Other Notes
- Brad Keselowski’s poor Speedweeks continued on Saturday. The Team Penske ace never got a true chance to contend, fighting with a loose roof hatch from the first lap before being forced to the garage area when the hatch flew off to force a caution. Keselowski claimed he felt like he “was back in the ‘50’s running a convertible here on the beach.”
- Saturday couldn’t have gone much better for Ryan Sieg Racing. The underfunded organization showed legitimate speed in the opening trip to Daytona, placing both cars inside of the top 10 to cap off a tremendous outing. Ryan Sieg drove home fourth to start his playoff quest out strong, while 2000 Xfinity Series champion Jeff Green slotted in a respectable seventh.
- He didn’t get the finish he wanted after being one of many trapped in the pack when the field elected not to race at the end, but Jeffrey Earnhardt had arguably his best performance in NASCAR to date in his Joe Gibbs Racing debut. Earnhardt led a career-high 29 laps in the opening stage, and spent the majority of the day in the top 10 before being cycled back to 15th in the late stages.
