The family curse afflicted Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday, but it didn’t keep him from handing teammate Michael Waltrip his second Daytona 500 victory.
Two laps down with a failing alternator on his Chevrolet, Earnhardt towed Waltrip in a drafting tandem past leader Jimmie Johnson on a restart.
Three laps later, rain ended the race after 109 of the scheduled 200 laps, making this the shortest Daytona 500 in history–only 272.5 miles–and the only one whose outcome may well have been affected by the weather.
Only twice previously had rain abbreviated this race. In 1965 only 133 laps were completed, and in ’66 there were 198. But on both occasions the winners, Fred Lorenzen and Richard Petty, already had lapped the field and were cinches to win anyway.
“It’s crazy enough trying to figure out a way to win the Daytona 500,” Waltrip said, “but who would have ever thought you’d have to figure out a way to win after 109 laps?”
His strategy was simple–pray for more rain–during the final delay before the race was called. Sitting in the pits, he said: “I thought we’d go back to racing, but I told [wife] Buffy, `That’s fine. I think I can win if we do that. I’ve led the most laps.'”
But he would have had to work for it had there been any more laps under green, considering the flock of pursuers behind him when the race was stopped–Kurt Busch second, Johnson third and Kevin Harvick fourth. And nearby lurked potential drafting partners for the competition–Busch teammate Mark Martin was fifth, and Harvick teammate Robby Gordon was sixth.
Earnhardt had swept all three preliminary races he’d entered this Speedweek and was the overwhelming favorite going into Sunday. It was just the scenario his late father had created four times before him.
Then, like his father, Earnhardt was bitten by a glitch that cost him the complete sweep.
He and Waltrip had been running up front in easy command of the race when, on Lap 88, the alternator–the mechanism that keeps the battery charged–began to sputter and he fell back. Earnhardt pitted on Lap 89, and the lengthy stop to change the battery cost him two laps.
“When the 8 car [Earnhardt] dropped [back], everybody’s face lit up, everybody’s eyes got wide, everybody’s foot got heavy,” Busch said. “It was a whole new race.”
Sort of.
At least for a while, Waltrip was left to fend for himself without his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate. Still, Johnson had to use a gas-only pit stop under caution to take the lead on Lap 96.
But Earnhardt’s car was just as strong after his long pit stop as it had been early in the race.
“Even when I was a couple of laps down, I could go right to the front,” Earnhardt said. “My car was really, really good.”
And he used it to control the outcome.
On Lap 102, a caution flag came out for debris on the track. On restarts late in a race, lapped cars are allowed to bunch up in the inside lane, alongside the front-runners in the outside lane. So Earnhardt, tops among the lapped cars, was allowed to line up beside race leader Johnson for the green flag.
The catalyst was Christian Fittipaldi, a veteran of Formula One and CART open-wheel racing but a rookie in this race, with little experience in stock cars. Fittipaldi’s lapped car was directly behind Earnhardt’s.
So Johnson and Waltrip were 1-2 in the outside lane, and Earnhardt and Fittipaldi 1-2 on the inside lane. Seeing that, Waltrip developed a strategy for a 190 m.p.h. chess game.
“I had a plan,” Waltrip said. “I knew Junior wanted to get a lap back and would be paying attention on the restart. I knew Christian was new here and might not be [as alert].
“So I hoped Junior would jump Christian on the restart and that Jimmie would try to race Junior and that I could drop into the space behind Junior and in front of Christian. Then I thought I could get by Jimmie. I couldn’t control what the other guys would do, but that was my plan.”
It all played to Waltrip’s script. When the green flag flew, Earnhardt took off. Fittipaldi, in a 3,400-pound car twice the weight of what he’s used to, lagged. There was the gap. And Waltrip moved from behind Johnson over into the gap.
From there, the teammates gave each other the notorious aerodynamic push-pull effect of drafting as partners in restrictor-plate races.
Busch, running fourth but seeing what was unfolding, followed Earnhardt and Waltrip past Johnson, leaving Johnson third.
Waltrip had to hold off Busch and Johnson for only one more lap before Ward Burton, last year’s Daytona 500 winner, crashed to bring out the final caution flag. The rain began again, and the race was red-flagged and never restarted.
Johnson had realized even under the caution that Earnhardt and Waltrip were plotting to gang up.
“When we got the one-to-go [warning for the green], I looked in the mirror and saw 15 [Waltrip] and 8 [Earnhardt] with their hands out the windows, doing hand signals, pointing, giving thumbs up,” Johnson said. “I knew I was in trouble then.”
Waltrip’s victory made seven wins in the last nine restrictor-plate races (at Talladega and Daytona) between him and Earnhardt. The bittersweet streak runs back to Waltrip’s win with Earnhardt second in the 2001 Daytona 500, when they took the checkered flag as Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s fatal crash occurred just behind them.
Results
At Daytona Beach, Fla.; Lap: 2.5 miles
C-Chevrolet; D-Dodge; F-Ford; P-Pontiac
FIN (START) DRIVER, CAR L MONEY
1. (4) Michael Waltrip C 109 1,400,706
2. (36) Kurt Busch F 109 1,022,451
3. (10) J. Johnson F 109 712,876
4. (31) Kevin Harvick F 109 564,980
5. (26) Mark Martin F 109 439,959
6. (3) Robby Gordon C 109 359,026
7. (8) Tony Stewart C 109 310,804
8. (20) J. Mayfield D 109 240,376
9. (18) Mike Wallace D 109 215,401
10. (11) Dale Jarrett F 109 240,670
11. (9) Jeff Burton F 109 230,537
12. (13) Jeff Gordon C 109 233,998
13. (30) Kyle Petty D 109 193,526
14. (24) Jack Sprague P 109 180,251
15. (5) Ricky Rudd F 109 215,945
16. (21) Kenny Wallace D 109 179,770
17. (7) Sterling Marlin D 109 223,012
18. (6) Todd Bodine F 109 190,401
19. (40) J. Benson P 109 203,970
20. (35) Matt Kenseth F 109 195,695
21. (27) Greg Biffle F 109 172,845
22. (15) Joe Nemechek C 109 175,945
23. (16) Elliott Sadler F 109 185,001
24. (39) Dave Blaney F 109 196,026
25. (38) Rusty Wallace D 109 185,625
26. (25) Ricky Craven P 109 181,220
27. (29) Casey Mears D 109 190,270
28. (42) Jerry Nadeau P 109 180,265
29. (32) Steve Park C 109 196,995
30. (41) Terry LabonteC 109 198,703
31. (19) J. McMurray D 109 166,545
32. (14) Bill Elliott D 109 204,057
33. (33) Tony Raines C 109 167,201
34. (12) John Andretti D 108 203,164
35. (34) C. Fittipaldi C 108 173,206
36. (2) D. Earnhardt Jr C 108 215,976
37. (43) Mike Skinner P 108 163,220
38. (17) Ward Burton D 105 206,045
39. (1) Jeff Green C 94 198,070
40. (23) J. Spencer D 94 161,970
41. (22) B. Labonte C 81 198,179
42. (28) Ken Schrader D 57 161,826
43. (37) Ryan Newman D 56 169,138
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Note: 38-40 and 42-43 cars crashed
Time of race: 2 hours 2 minutes 8 seconds.
Margin of victory: Under caution.
Winner’s average speed: 133.870 m.p.h.
Caution flags: Five for 23 laps.
Lead changes: Eleven among 8 drivers.
Lap leaders: Green 0; Waltrip 1-34; Kenseth 35-36; Stewart 37-42; Earnhardt Jr. 43-64; Mears 65; M.Waltrip 66-95; Johnson 96; Bodine 97; Craven 98; Johnson 99-105; Waltrip 106-109.
STANDINGS
DRIVER PTS DRIVER PTS
1. Waltrip 185 6. Stewart 151
2. Busch 170 7. R. Gordon 150
3. Johnson 170 8. Mayfield 142
4. Harvick 160 9. M. Wallace 138
5. Martin 155 10. Jarrett 134
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