DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Kyle Busch won the first victory of the new season, beating NASCAR champion Chase Elliott after Elliott defeated leader Ryan Blaney in the final stage of the Busch Clash show.
Blaney had followed Elliott on the road at Daytona International Speedway to take the lead, with two laps remaining in the Speedweeks’ 35-lap opening on Tuesday night. Elliott, winner of the last four NASCAR road races, dating back to 2019, did not let Blaney get away and prepare for one last chance at victory.
He watched Blaney in a whisper, heading for the last push of Tower 4, and as Elliott locked himself in the bumper, the two made contact and Blaney spun into the wall. Elliott cost him the momentum, and Busch headed for the surprise victory.
“I just knew how to keep my head down and focus forward and just see if I could hit my tracks to have a shot like that if something like that materialized,” Busch said.
Busch drove only the last 300 feet of the race for victory for Joe Gibbs Racing. It comes after a disappointing one-win season for the 2019 NASCAR champion. The lack of success led to an off-season shake-up with his Toyota team no. 18.
For Busch, the victory comes after a disappointing season with only one victory for the 2019 NASCAR champion. He fought in the second half of the season, failed to advance to the final round of the championship for the first time in 2014 and his Toyota crew no. 18 was revised during the winter.
Gibbs made so many changes to Busch’s crew, joked that he felt he was fired, and moved on a new journey.
“I’m not sure we’re mature enough or ready enough to win as a group, but I feel this is a good start,” Busch said. “Winning never hurts, but there are a few things we need to improve a little bit in order for us to grow.”
Elliott finished second and Blaney third. The two are close friends on the track and talked to Blaney’s damaged race car after arrival.
“If I’m sorry I tried to win a race, then I’m not doing it wrong,” Elliott said. “Obviously, I don’t want to destroy anyone. I feel like I have to go to this at an event like this.”
Blaney showed heavy racing in the first event since the end of the November season.
“Of course he didn’t want to destroy me, but I ended up being destroyed,” Blaney said. “I told him, ‘If you’re going to make such a move, you better make sure you win the race and don’t let the third one win.’
Clash has always been the opening event of Speedweeks, which traditionally stretches two weekends before the opening of the Daytona 500 season. NASCAR this year is experiencing a condensed schedule and all races run for six days and end with the big show on Sunday. .
This year’s run was the first on the Daytona route, a plan announced before the start of the 2020 season. NASCAR moved from the traditional oval to meet fan requests for more variety in the program and realized it would be a final race in the current car before the introduction of the Next Gen model
But Next Gen was postponed until 2022 due to the pandemic, and NASCAR used the Daytona road race in August last year for a toll race, when it had to change the schedule to end the season. Elliott won the inaugural Daytona race.
The crash was much smoother than last year’s race on the Daytona Oval, a crash festival in which each car had at least one incident and only six cars ran at the end. The race also had 12 driving changes, one less than the one in August here, which had 30 additional laps.
NASCAR will run the road course again on February 21 in a points-paying event. The race was moved to Daytona due to pandemic restrictions in California, where NASCAR was scheduled to compete at Fontana.