DAYTONA RACE REVIEW

Here Comes the Rain Again!

Date: Originally supposed to be 8-27-2022, but the race was run on 8-28-2022.
Name of the race: Coke Zero Sugar 400.
Track: Daytona International Speedway. 
Laps: 160.
Pole winner: Kyle Larson.
Outside pole: Chase Elliott.
Stage 1 winner: Joey Logano.
Stage 2 winner: Kyle Busch.
Stage 3 winner (won the race): Austin Dillon.
Top 5: Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, Landon Cassil, and Noah Gragson.
FYI: Saturday night under the lights and the last race of the regular season to determine which sixteen drivers will make the playoffs make for an intense formula for a Daytona superspeedway race during the month of August. The stage was set for a Saturday night race but like the theme of the 2022 season, Mother Nature reigned on the parade which pushed the race to 10:00 am Sunday morning. Kyle Larson started on the pole with his Hendrick teammate starting on the outside. All was going well until lap fifteen when Kyle Larson radioed to his team that he was blowing up causing his day to be done. This little domino was only a preview of what was yet to come with this being a key race for drivers like Dillon and Buescher to win and drivers like Truex and Blaney to survive and make it on points. For a while, it looked like Blaney was not going to make it after being in a crash at the beginning of the race, but two key factors kept him in the fight which was his team having a well-thought-out strategy to fix the car and Truex being caught in a wreck late in the final stage. The wreck that every race will remember about this Daytona summer race was the wreck on lap 125 when it started raining in turn one and everyone started crashing into one another, somehow Austin Dillon was able to doge everyone and come out of the crash unscathed. This was his first winning move of the race since he was able to get the lead when it looked like no one was left, and right after this crash, the red flag was waved for a three-hour and nineteen-minute rain delay. Once the track drying officials dried off the two-and-a-half-mile speedway, the points battle between Blaney and Truex continued because 2022 Daytona 500 champion Austin Cindric was in control of the race until lap 158 when Dillon knocked Cindric out of the way cleanly after trailing him since the restart on lap 145. This was the second race-winning move for the #3 car which earned him a spot in the playoffs, his second win a Daytona, and his first win of the season. Austin was the fifteenth different winner throughout the regular season and Blaney was able to earn the sixteenth and final spot in the playoffs over Truex who missed it by three points. Now the series rolls into Darlington Raceway for the first race in the round of sixteenth in the playoffs. Buckle up folks, the road to the championship is about to begin!
Next race: Darlington Raceway on Sunday night (9-4-2022) for the first race of the playoffs.