Preamble: The title comes from a book by Robert Sheffield’s 2010 novel “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran.” In the novel, he takes 25 pop songs from the 1980s and uses each song as a jumping off point to talk about his love of music and growing up in the 1980s. (If you’re more into hair metal than pop, you should also check out Chuck Klosterman’s 2001 book “Fargo Rock City.”) In “Talking to People Who Don’t Know NASCAR About Daytona, I’m going to take devote each entry in the series to one of my Top 10 favourite Daytona 500s. Instead of discussing who led what laps, etc. I’m going to describe to an audience (and probably a non-existence one) why I chose this particular race.
#2 – “The 2014 Daytona 500 – Junior’s Redemption”
One win can change your whole career. In that one moment in 2011 as unheralded Trevor Bayne outdistanced Carl Edwards and others to become a Daytona 500 champion, he was instantly crowned the future of NASCAR. Derrike Cope took advantage of a blown tire by Dale Earnhardt Sr. to (temporarily) earn his spot among the elite drivers. For both Bayne and Cope, that fifteen minutes of fame turned fleeting (Cope would win 1 more Cup race, a total Bayne is still hoping to match), but they will still always be known as Daytona 500 winners.
As the 2013 Sprint Cup season started, there was uncertainty in the massive fan following known in NASCAR as Junior Nation. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was already a Daytona 500 winner, capturing his biggest career win in 2004. But that was back when he was still piloting the red #8 Budweiser Chevy for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. After leaving DEI for the power-house Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the 2007 campaign, Junior’s career seems to stall. In the first five years with Hendrick, Junior would win just twice, both at the June races at Michigan in 2008 and 2012.
Questions were beginning to pop up: Was Dale Earnhardt Jr. really worth the hype? Was this fan favourite destined to be forever remembered as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver but not a successful one?
While Junior would not capture his second Daytona 500 victory in 2013, he would finish second to Hendrick teammate and begin a career resurgence that drove the #88 Chevrolet to four more runner-up finishes and 10 Top 5s overall.
But while Junior Nation could take solace that the 2013 campaign was Junior’s most successful since coming to Hendrick Motorsports, the fact remained that he still hadn’t visited Victory Lane (save to congratulate teammates Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kane) since Michigan in June 2012.
When Dale Jr. arrived at Daytona International Speedway on February 23, 2014 he was at somewhat of a crossroads. Improved results for sure, but coming into the last year of a fruitful partnership with crew chief Steve Letarte and entering into what many felt was his best but perhaps last chance at the championship many had assumed he would one day win since arriving on the Cup scene in 2000. If Junior stumbled in 2014, all the good will and success he’d had in 2013 would be for naught.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified 9th for the 2014 Daytona 500, a race in which Austin Dillon, driving the Richard Childress Racing #3 Chevrolet, made so famous by Dale Earnhardt Sr, captured the pole. Of the four cars in the Hendrick stable, Junior was the top-ranked qualifier.
Coming into the race, however, Denny Hamlin had won his previous three races – the 2013 season finale at Homestead, the Sprint Unlimited (now the Busch Clash) and the second Budweiser Duel. If there was a car to bet the farm on, it might have been the #11 FedEx Toyota. Indeed, Hamlin took the lead from Austin Dillon on the second lap and led until lap 10. From there, it was Kyle Busch running up front.
No driver could slow down Kyle Busch until lap 39…when Mother Nature made her presence known. A storm that even brought out a tornado warning arrived over Daytona. For nearly six and a half hours, the cars, the drivers and the fans waited for the weather to clear, with visions of 2012 – when the race was postponed until the next day and, with delays, ended in the early minutes of Tuesday morning.
Night had come to Daytona by the time the Daytona 500 resumed. While Busch had retained the lead over the course of the red flag and the rain delay, a dozen drivers from dark horses like Justin Allgaier and Aric Almirola to favourites like the Penske duo Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano and former winners like Trevor Bayne, Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson took the lead, some for several laps, some for just a couple.
It wasn’t until lap 131 that Dale Earnhardt Jr took his place at the front of the pack, and when he did, the end game of the race began to come into play. From that point on, even through several caution, no one but Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards would lead the Daytona 500. On Lap 182, although no one knew it at the time, the last lead change would occur as Junior regained the lead from Carl Edwards.
In all, the 2015 Daytona 500 would have six cautions. On the last, a bit of sweet irony would come into play. Austin Dillon, driving the #3 would accidentally turn RCR teammate Ryan Newman (winner of the 2008 Daytona 500) and in the wreck, a piece of bear bond from the #31 would fly off and get stuck to Junior’s grill.
Over a long run, that debris would have spelled disaster (the lack of air would have raised the engine temperatures and eventually caused overheating) but with a Green-White-Checkered finish, it caused Junior’s car to operate under “qualifying trim” conditions (less air to the engine meant less disruption in the air flow and quicker speeds in the short term). He also received help from a less unorthodox source: his Hendrick Motorsports teammate (and three-time Daytona winner) Jeff Gordon. As the last restart began, Gordon gave Junior a push and he was able to make a great restart to get out ahead of the field.
There’s a beauty to the last lap of that Daytona 500. It was captured in one long panning shot into turns 3 and 4 with Junior, in the National Guard #88 Chevrolet, leading the field. You soon realize that there are only two real challengers, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin. It just as quickly becomes apparent that neither are really in position to challenge Earnhardt. Keselowski has no one to draft with and Hamlin has no room to get around Junior.
Even as Harvick, Kyle Busch and others wreck behind him, Dale Junior has a full car length over Hamlin as he comes past the entrance to pit lane. Denny Hamlin has simply run out of time.
“Checkered Flag…waving…it’s over….It’s Earnhardt!” is Mike Joy’s call.
For the third time in history, an Earnhardt had won the Daytona 500. In the celebration afterwards, it seemed as though a Daytona 500 win had lifted something off the shoulders of Dale Earnhardt Jr.. It was the same weight that you could almost see lifting from his father’s shoulders as Dale Sr. emerged from his #3 Chevrolet at Daytona in February 1998.
While 2014 would not end with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the championship, he would win four races including a sweep at Pocono and the fall race at Martinsville. He made the Chase but was eliminated at Talladega, finishing 8th in the standings overall. A disappointment? Perhaps, but it marked the most wins Junior had in a single season since coming to Hendrick and twice as many as his entire pre-2014 career with the team.
The championship would never come for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. but with a second win at the Daytona 500, and a resurgence in his career – cut short by concussions – the whispers that Dale Jr. was over-rated, getting by because of a famous last name, were largely silenced. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with 26 career Cup wins, two Xfinity Championships, two Daytona 500 wins and 15-time Most Popular Driver, was named to the 2021 Class of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.
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