This race saw three multi-car wrecks which took out some fast cars before Kyle Busch took the non-points Budweiser Shootout win with a perfectly timed finish that gave him the closest Budweiser Shootout victory in history.
Qualifying
The starting lineup for the 2012 Budweiser Shootout was determined by a blind draw. Drivers went up on stage and picked a Budweiser bottle with a number on it that would determine their starting position.
Martin Truex Jr. picked the lucky number one bottle and lead the field to the green flag.
Kyle Busch picked the number two bottle but his starting position was in doubt until race day. Kyle was involved in a practice crash and had to switch to a backup car. In a normal race Kyle Busch would have to give up his starting spot but since this is a non-points race NASCAR spent some time considering if those involved in the practice crash would be allowed to take their regular starting spot.
Brad Keselowski picked the number three spot but he was in the same predicament as Kyle. Both drivers were unsure as to whether they would be allowed to stay there.
In the end NASCAR decided that this race should follow the same rules as all the others and those drivers that had to change to a backup car were forced to drop to the back for the green.
The rest of the top five starters were made up by Jamie McMurray and David Ragan.
Drop Of The Green
Jamie McMurray got a run on the outside in run two and lead the field down the back stretch. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got a push into turn three and lead the field back to the green flag to lead lap one.
The early racing looked a lot like the "old school" restrictor plate racing from years past. This included plenty of lead changes and lots of two and three-wide racing.
Jamie McMurray was at the head of the field along with Jeff Gordon when the first twenty-five lap segment ended. The teams took a break before they resumed racing for the final 50 laps.
Storylines
NASCAR engineers put their heads together during the off season to try to break up the two car drafts that characterized Sprint Cup restrictor plate racing in 2011. With smaller radiators and changes to the front and rear bumbers NASCAR was successful and this race looked a lot more like the restrictor plate racing of old.
Unfortunately that meant that "The Big One" was also back in play. It didn't take long before Daytona saw its first multi-car wreck. Eight cars crashed including Michael Waltrip, Paul Menard, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya, David Ragan and Jeff Burton.
Then in the second segment there were about twenty laps to go when the second "Big One" of the night struck the lead pack. Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano,, Marcos Ambros and Matt Kenseth were all running in the top ten with a legitimate shot at winning the race when all heck broke loose and they ended up with wrecked race cars instead.
So is what restrictor plate racing is going to look like in 2012?
Chasing The Checkers
Jeff Gordon was in the lead as the laps clicked down into the final five. Then the scramble began.
Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart took turns at the top before the third "Big One" of the night claimed another batch of good cars including Jeff Gordon who got upside down, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, A.J. Allmendinger, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose and Jamie McMurray who were in the lead pack as they were coming for the white flag.
That wreck set up a green-white-checkers finish with just a few cars left undamaged to race for the win. Only Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski and Greg Biffle had avoided crashing during the race when the final restart took the green.
Tony Stewart was in the lead with Marcos Ambrose along side for the final restart.
Ambrose got a good push from Keselowski and took the lead on the restart before Kyle Busch hoooked up with Tony Stewart and pushed Stewart to the lead when the white flag flew.
Stewart and Kyle Busch got a little gap on the field before Kyle jumped out in the final straight and nipped Stewart at the line on the outside by .01 seconds. Kyle's pass was pure genius. He couldn't have timed his move better.
Top Ten
- Kyle Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Marcos Ambrose
- Brad Keselowski
- Denny Hamlin
- Greg Biffle
- Ryan Newman
- Clint Bowyer
- Carl Edwards
- Juan Montoya
