(Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
By Aaron Bearden
After each NASCAR race weekend, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a special report on the Busch Clash, the season-opening NASCAR Cup Series exhibition race on the Daytona International Speedway road course.
Who Won?
Kyle Busch, sneaking past a crashing duo of Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to score a surprise victory.
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Clash of two friends
Maintaining close friendships in any avenue of life can be a challenge. Doing so when you race each other week-after-week ups the ante tenfold, adding the constant risk of mistakes and crashes that can test even the strongest of bonds.
Such was the case on Tuesday night, as popular second-generation stars Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney collided in the final moments of the year-opening Busch Clash.
Running on fresher tires in the closing stages of the exhibition event on the Daytona International Speedway road course, Blaney leaped by all other competitors to find himself on Elliott’s bumper with two laps remaining. He made a move through Daytona’s infield section and overtook Elliott, allowing him to lead the field to the white flag.
But Elliott wasn’t going down without a fight. Firmly established as a road course ace –- Elliott’s 11 Cup wins include five triumphs on road courses, including last year’s Daytona event – the Georgian’s unique prowess for right and left turns allowed him to hold pace with Blaney despite his older tires over the final lap.
Elliott shifted from out of range to looking for moves a few different times over the last lap, but his key opportunity came after a strong exit to the back stretch’s bus stop chicane allowed him to close in on Blaney through oval Turns 3 and 4. The defending Cup champion saw an opportunity to make a last-second pass on Blaney in the front stretch chicane and dove to the right of him entering the section.
But the move quickly backfired.
Neither driver conceded ground. They banged into each other.
Blaney went around and into the outside wall. Elliott continued on, but was temporarily slowed.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuMC2qdnLjs]
Kyle Busch, previously a distant third, was close enough to take advantage. He scooted past both drivers on the inside lane and stole the first win for his new crew chief, Ben Beshore. Elliott followed in second, while Blaney was relegated to 13th.
Elliott quickly walked over to Blaney’s car and apologized after the race.
“I was close enough to drive it in there, and I feel like I’d be mad at myself for not at least trying,” Elliott said of the move. “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 here in an event like this and in the situation. I can’t be sorry for going for the win, but I certainly didn’t mean to wreck him.”
Neither driver seemed to carry ill will over the move. Blaney was understandably frustrated to have lost the race, but described the accident as hard racing and nothing more.
“I hit the mud hard on the backstretch and kind of let him get even closer; and then I was trying to protect against the dive bomb there,” Blaney said. “I braked deeper in that corner than I had braked all night, and he set it off in there, and we came together, and neither one of us won the race.
“It definitely sucks for sure, but I appreciate the fast car, and it’s a shame it didn’t happen.”
Blaney’s crash came in remarkably similar fashion to another incident from 2018 that resulted in his lone road course Cup win to date on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. That day it was Elliott’s former teammate, Jimmie Johnson, who crashed into a leading Martin Truex Jr. on the track’s front stretch chicane, allowing a third-place Blaney to slip through for a shocking victory.
This time around it was Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Busch, who benefited from the chaos in third, while Blaney and Elliott were left to ponder what could have been.
“If you’re going to make a move like that, make sure you win the race,” Blaney quipped afterward, “don’t let the third-place guy do it.”
Elliott joked that his failure to win showed how accidental the run-in was, saying “that’s a sure sign of not doing it on purpose when you don’t win the race after wrecking somebody.
“That’s just my bad. I tried to get that across. Obviously he’s frustrated and should be. I, unfortunately, can’t do anything about it now.”
The end result was disappointing for both drivers, but it doesn’t seem to have had any significant bearing on their relationship. Having the move come in an exhibition race with no long-term repercussions certainly aided both drivers in getting over it, but their mutual respect and quick post-race discussion also helped.
“No good friends would be happy with each other if one ended up getting wrecked by the other one,” Blaney said. “I’ve always said that’s the good thing about having friends that race against you; you can sit down and talk about it, and it not be a huge blow-up argument.
“Now, we’re definitely not going to see eye-to-eye on it, but we’re going to be able to sit down and talk, and now just blow it off.”
The Busch Pass
Kyle Busch has seen victory lane more than most racers in the world – particularly in NASCAR, where he has a record 213 national series victories. So for him to experience something new en route to a victory is rare.
But Tuesday’s crash-dodging win was something he couldn’t remember going through before.
“I’m not quite sure that I have, actually,” Busch said when asked if he’s ever lucked into a win like Tuesday’s in the past.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember one anyway.”
In the first Busch Clash on Daytona’s road course, it was Busch that benefitted from a clash ahead of him. Busch was johnny-on-the-spot when Blaney and Elliott collided in the final corners of the race, snaking past the crashing pair on the inside lane from third to roll to his first victory with new crew chief Ben Beshore.
Busch had been closing in on the duo before the wreck occurred, but he wouldn’t have had the pace to catch them had they not made contact. Thankfully for the Nevadan, they stalled each other long enough for him to get through.
“I wasn’t sure if Chase was going to push the issue and push back on Blaney and knock him through the turn and make him miss the exit or what was going to happen,” Busch said. “The both of them had to make the turtles (a nickname for the track’s curbing), if you will. They just got together and started crashing.
“When that started happening, I was hoping they were going to wreck long enough that I could get up in there and get by them, we could win the thing. It’s never over until it’s over at these types of places, especially when you have those last-corner, last-ditch effort chicanes like here and the Roval.”
By being in the right place when the ending played out, Busch caught a lucky, but earned break. It was a nice start to 2021 after a 2020 season that he deemed a disappointment.
Coming off of a 2019 campaign where he won his second Cup title, the younger Busch brother floundered a bit in 2020. He still had 14 top-fives and led 516 laps, but the Nevadan failed to make the Championship 4 for the first time since the first elimination playoff in 2014 and didn’t win until the 34th race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.
His struggles resulted in a significant shakeup heading into 2021, with crew chief Adam Stevens sent over to the No. 20 team and Busch’s No. 18 group calling up successful Xfinity Series signal caller Beshore from Harrison Burton’s team.
Busch quipped that he felt like he “got fired from the 18 car and moved over the to 20 guys with the way everything played out” during his preseason media availability. With the change, he hoped to bounce back as he had in 2008, when he shifted from Hendrick Motorsports over to JGR and won eight races.
Tuesday’s race was far from perfect, but it ended with a trip to victory lane that he made just once in all of 2020. Now he and the No. 18 team can set their sights on the Daytona 500 – a victory that’s eluded Busch through the first 16 years of his full-time Cup career.
A successful show and questions moving forward
There were varied levels of enthusiasm and expectations for the NASCAR industry and fans heading into Tuesday’s race.
The Busch Clash, historically known as a short sprint race on the 2.5-mile oval a week before Daytona 500 weekend, was shifting to a new midweek evening date on the track’s road course. This move came after a summer 2020 race on the same track that was fine, but not altogether exciting.
Fans hoping for the chaos-filled demolition derbies of prior editions of the year-opening exhibition were in for a disappointing time. But race fans willing to give the road course a go were treated to an entertaining show.
There were 13 lead changes and four cautions in the race’s 35 laps – both stats matching the total from the 65-lap event held half a year ago. Utilizing the higher-horsepower, lower-downforce rules package this time around, the field in Tuesday’s race proved capable of running closer together and completing overtakes.
The cars were difficult to drive in places, exacerbated by the mud kicked up onto the racing surface as drivers mistakenly drove through the grass in the bus stop chicane. Kevin Harvick hit the dirt and spun at one point in the opening stint. Martin Truex Jr. had a similar issue and crashed into the outside wall from the lead in the closing laps.
“The pack (was) way better, way, way better,” Logano said. “(We were) able to stay behind cars better. I think that was definitely a gain.”
Truex echoed Logano’s sentiments.
“The track is awesome,” Truex said after his crash. “It’s a blast to race on, a blast to drive on with these cars. It’s really tough. They don’t do anything you want them to do, in that you just see guys sliding all over the track and that makes it a lot of fun.”
A limited tire allotment and genuine tire wear added pit strategy to the mix, showcased by Blaney and Elliott in the closing stages. Blaney was on fresher tires than Elliott, allowing him to hold pace and complete the late overtake that preceded their coming together in a classic finish to the race.
“I guess it was an exciting finish,’ Blaney said afterward. “Bet it was fun to watch.”
Tuesday’s race was intriguing, but it still felt like something far different from the tradition of prior Busch Clash runs. Those willing to embrace the change were treated to something entertaining in different ways, but it was still a difficult sell for fans of the big packs, tight racing and wild crashes that the 2.5-mile oval can provide.
“I’m not sure what the show looked like on television,” Busch said. “Hopefully it was a good one. We always want to put on a great race, whether it’s at Daytona road course or Daytona oval or Phoenix, Martinsville, wherever. We’re an entertainment business.
“Hopefully it was a good race. I know there was a lot of excitement here or there. There were leaders crashing out of the lead. That kind of shows you how treacherous and tricky this place is.”
Whether NASCAR and Daytona will continue to trial the Busch Clash on the road course remains to be seen. Reverting to the oval would be simple, but invites the risk of additional crashed cars that prove to be a difficult sell – particularly next year with the addition of the debuting Next Gen car to the mix.
One thing is certain: the bus top chicane may need some work for NASCAR events. Drivers complained early and often about the mud being kicked up as they missed the curbs, causing plugged grilles and overheating issues along with a slick surface that even yielded a debris caution early in the race.
This figures to be an issue when NASCAR returns to the road course layout next weekend if changes aren’t implemented beforehand.
“We’ve got to do something,” Logano said. “I felt like I was dirt racing still out there. Just a mud bath. … What ends up happening, you’re nose to tail on the car in front of you, you can’t see the curbs to your right.
“Imagine being right behind somebody. You can’t see where there curbs are. … So you end up going shorter and short to the right to try to, one, get your angle better, but two, try to find some vision. You do that and go through the mud.”
The 2018 champion suggests stepping up the curbing to entice drivers to make the corner correctly.
“We’ve got to add some higher curbing,” he said. “Keep the yellow ones where they’re at, just put something either at the outside of those yellow curbs that are there. Flat curbs you run over, keep those, put something right after that. That would be my opinion to it.”
As for the Busch Clash itself, Tuesday’s winner is willing to race it on any track or layout as long as it builds up sufficient excitement for the upcoming Daytona 500 each year.
“What you do with the Clash is whatever, in my opinion,” Busch said. “How we start the year is all about building that excitement.
“Even if we were told that we race over at New Smyrna (Speedway), that’s kind of a wakeup for everybody. Like, ‘hey, NASCAR is in town.’”
Other Notes
- Joey Logano wound up third at race’s end, but had to overcome a rare penalty to do so. He was black flagged for entering pit road alongside teammate Ryan Blaney during a pit sequence under caution. “I don’t understand the call NASCAR made there,” Logano said. “I’ve got to talk to them. That’s a move that’s been made for the 10 years, 11 years I’ve been doing this. I don’t know why it’s not ok now. I just want consistent officiating. That’s all I’m looking for, so just trying to understand that a little bit better. It might be on me, I’ve got to look at it.
- In what will forever be a fun bit of racing trivia, Ty Dillon got to make the first start for Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23XI Racing team on Tuesday, thanks to his eligibility for the Busch Clash and the support of Root Insurance. He had a quiet run and came home 18th. Dillon will shift to Gaunt Brothers Racing for the Daytona 500, with Bubba Wallace stepping into his new full-time role with 23XI Racing.
- During one stage of the race both Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher suffered spins, with Buescher colliding with Alex Bowman’s No. 48 in the midst of his. Despite all of that, NASCAR kept the race green. This could be a sign of things to come, with more road courses on the schedule and some within the industry calling for the embracing of local yellows in those races.
- Another thing to watch next weekend in the points race at Daytona – restarts. Both Blaney and Kurt Busch led the field into Turn 1 on a restart at one point in the night. Each made the same mistake, locking up the brakes and sending their cars well beyond the normal turn, allowing Hamlin to the lead in both instances.
Results
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott
- Joey Logano
- Tyler Reddick
- William Byron
- Denny Hamlin
- Alex Bowman
- Erik Jones
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Austin Dillon
- Aric Almirola
- Ryan Blaney
- Ryan Newman
- Kevin Harvick
- Chris Buescher
- Brad Keselowski
- Ty Dillon
- Kurt Busch
- Cole Custer
- Martin Truex Jr.
