Daytona 500 results [Spoiler Alert!]
The 49th running of the Daytona 500 has just finished and the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup season is underway. For those who have TiVo'd the Great American Race and don't know who won yet, we've put the results after the jump.
UPDATE 1: Pics of the finish and this year's winner added after the jump!
This year's Daytona 500 proved my theory that the last ten minutes of a NASCAR race is better than the hours that precede it. After a four-car crash with less than ten laps to go, the field started up after caution with just three laps to race. The top five cars in order were Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, David Gilliland and Elliott Sadler. Mark Martin did a great job sticking to the bottom yellow line and holding off the field for about a lap and a half, but got loose enough at the end for a charging Kevin Harvick to make a move. It was a photo finish at the end, with Kevin Harvick edging out Mark Martin by a nose to become the winner of this year's Daytona 500.
We won't recap the highs and lows of the entire race here, but rather send you over to the NASCAR Channel at the AOL Sports Blog, which we just discovered has been live-blogging the race in real time. It's extremely interesting to read an entire race, but it looks like the AOL Sports Blog people found a way to do it.
Click on any pic below to view it in high-resolution. (all pics by Getty Images)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brian W 7:54PM (2/18/2007)
Poor Mark Martin, great guy.
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Hagetaka 7:51PM (2/18/2007)
Nice to see NASCAR applying consistency in all its' racing decisions and not relying on bumbling attempts to manipulate late race cautions (or lack thereof)
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roy 8:06PM (2/18/2007)
Mark was robbed! In all other laps the caution was thrown as soon as the accident occured, but on the last lap... we change the rules. Now maybe we need to fire back at NASCAR for CHEATING.
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Josh 1:13AM (2/19/2007)
What an awesome race, hate to see Mark Matin loose but atleast a nother good guy got it. Well theres always next year for Martin.
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Greg 8:35PM (2/18/2007)
MARK MARTIN WAS TOTALLY RIPPED OFF!
#3 post says it all.
Total Sham, what a pathetic ending, and Darrel Waltrip at the end making excuses for the Corporate Whores who now run Nascar.
I am glad I only watched the last 30 laps.
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johnz 9:04PM (2/18/2007)
How do you through a caution with 100yards to go in the race to the checkered flag? I may be mistaken but the wreck was behind Harvick and Martin.
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dewey crosby 9:22PM (2/18/2007)
ROY #3 and GREG #4..... everything happened BEHIND the cars racing to the finish line... why would that be called a "rule change"??? Use your head.. Since it was the "last lap" it would not interfere with any cars since they wouldn't do any more laps!! DUH!!! JOHNZ #5... no.. you were not mistaken..
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far jr 9:38PM (2/18/2007)
Nice to see all the NASCAR folks dislike of Toyota for being a foreign company while at the same time supporting drivers like Harvick driving a Chevy (in name only) with sponsorship by shell (who owns Pennzoil by the way). Shell is also known as Royal Dutch Petroleum. Based out of Holland if I'm correct.
Does the Army actually get that much recruitment bang for my taxpayer buck to be supporting a Nextel Cup car? Do you know how much primary sponsors pay in NASCAR?
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Aprime 9:39PM (2/18/2007)
REDNECK PARTY
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JN loves rice 9:56PM (2/18/2007)
7. Nice to see all the NASCAR folks dislike of Toyota for being a foreign company while at the same time supporting drivers like Harvick driving a Chevy (in name only) with sponsorship by shell (who owns Pennzoil by the way). Shell is also known as Royal Dutch Petroleum. Based out of Holland if I'm correct.
Does the Army actually get that much recruitment bang for my taxpayer buck to be supporting a Nextel Cup car? Do you know how much primary sponsors pay in NASCAR?
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You sound like a japboy just crying because those Toy ota proved they are shitboxes. Best finish by them was 23rd and the rest back in the pack and if 10 cars had not crashed out those TOYs would have even been further back, the cheating riceballs
Or maybe PO'd cause that drug dealer JPM from south of the boarder who made bold claims he was going to win this American race ended up 19th place. Ya those F1 dudes are real hot racers.
Welcome to the USA, we'll kick your ass and you can make excuses how great those Toy ota are.
As to the US Army, go screw yourself, that team is real pride to all serving our country and you have no clue who pays for that team.
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david 10:06PM (2/18/2007)
hard to understand what far out jr is trying to start here, but then everytime he posts he writes as if he were on drugs. no one in nascar expected toyoda to even finish in the top 20 unless they did'nt get caught cheating. just like all those promises in f1. busted. as my ww2 vet dad used say, "always remember pearl harbor and what those cheatin slimeballs did".
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Fred Savage 10:17PM (2/18/2007)
who cares. nascar is like bowling with bumpers. sure you'll get drunk and the nachos are good but you and your friends are still retards.
learn to turn right and we'll talk.
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far jr 10:24PM (2/18/2007)
JN Rice and David... Do the facts get you perterbed? So you like foreign companies as long as they aren't Asian? I guess you haven't been around autoblog long if you consider me a Ricer. I just see a double standard here and call it as I see it. I personally dislike the marketing machine that IS NASCAR. I prefer small town dirt track racing and what NASCAR was many years ago.
As for the Army I agree it's nice for our troops... but it would be nicer to spend the money on hardware or steaks for them. Just my opinion. I doubt the government does it for pride as much as recruitment though. By the way my discharge was honorable from the armed forces...how bout you?
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Adam 10:25PM (2/18/2007)
Yay for retards (7) and racists (10).
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johnz 10:27PM (2/18/2007)
Juan Pablo Montoya happens to be one of the most talented race car drivers in the world. He is a rookie to NASCAR so a 19th place finish should be considered good. Calling him a drug dealer is ridiculous and shows someone's obvious inability to put together any constructive input.
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will 10:40PM (2/18/2007)
you idiots, the army sponsorship comes out of their marketing budget...it's a great way to get the ARMY name seen just as all other sponsors. it's nothing new to have foreign sponsors, money is money and teams aren't going to turn it down...foreign manufacturers are something totally different.
as for the rest of the world, i think they're all going to see that nascar isn't as easy as they think as JPM won't make the chase...won't even compete for one of those top 12 spots and AJ Allmedinger will struggle to make half the races in his toyota. and the open wheel world will wake up..oh my bad, nothing american is worth shit right? what am i thinking, i'm just a redneck who knows nothing...great to see JPM a native columbian become a redneck! too bad he's gonna be a middle of the pack redneck......
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Travis Ayres 2:46AM (2/20/2007)
Toyota produces many cars/trucks in the US. I'll bet they produce more cars here than Ford does. Thats pretty American to me.
Lets see, most GM vehicles come from Canada/Mexico...Toyota cars come from America. Ever see where the Ford Mustang's transmission comes from (the GT, the only mustang that matters besides the cobra/shelby/whatever)? France. Yeah. Great.
Also, just because you won in Nascar in a pseudo-Chevy doesn't make your chevy cool. Most chevys suck. Nascar has nothing to do with the cars you buy - take off the names 'Chevy' and 'Toyota' and it would be just the same - mild steel tubing, V8, RWD, some fakey-bodywork.
Why get your panties in a knot if it has nothing to do with any brand, except the brands of the advertisers? Lets face it: NASCAR SUCKS. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. No technological advancement, no trickle-down coolness or technology, no relation to the cars you buy. Although I don't know why I am saying this online - most rednecks who like Nascar can't use computers.
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far jr 11:00PM (2/18/2007)
"it's nothing new to have foreign sponsors, money is money and teams aren't going to turn it down...foreign manufacturers are something totally different."
Posted at 10:40PM on Feb 18th 2007 by will
Will... I disagree. Toyota is in NASCAR for the same reason as Budweiser and Shell... to get thier name seen and accepted among the huge throng of racefans that watch the races so they will buy thier product.
NASCAR is too much marketing machine and cares so much about equalizing these cars that little or nothing is left of a Chevy,Ford or Toyota except the stickers that say so. May as well put all the drivers in identical cars with identical chassis and identical powerplants to compete with only color and number to separate them (like IROC). Oh never mind, I think NASCAR is already there. By the way what about Dodge... you know... the German company.
I brought up the Shell topic to incite folks. I doubt most NASCAR fans are even aware that shell is ideed a foreign company. They gripe about foreign companies like Toyota in NASCAR but then go support Shell at the pumps to help out "old Harvick's" team. Many Americans claim they don't want to buy from foreign companies but are too lazy to educate themselves on the facts.
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fizzandpop 11:15PM (2/18/2007)
Bob Barsha's "southern accent" is dead funny. I bet it'll be gone by the Aussie Grand Prix.
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Jeff Banks 11:15PM (2/18/2007)
How every Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota and whatever "brand" NASCAR is made:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/nascar.htm
NASCAR really is a genius idea...require that the teams buy YOUR same engines, frames, and bodies that you've made since 1959 so that you don't have any development costs, outlaw any new innovations, and then put stickers on the cars to differentiate between "brands" to make your idiot fan base think there is an actual competition going on. I really hate to break it to all the fans of NASCAR who actually try to seriously comment on it, but its all a big money making scam.
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