If this weekend’s Daytona 500 was written as a movie script, it would have been less believable than Talladega Nights.
A weekend usually wrapped up by Sunday night, things at Daytona finally came to a conclusion in the wee hours of Tuesday morning when Matt Kenseth held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win his second career 500 title.
It’s what came roughly three hours earlier, though, that will likely be the lasting memory of an unforgettable weekend.
Juan Pablo Montoya threw a lug wrench into everything — even more than had already been done — when he lost control of his car in Turn 3 under caution and slammed into one of the trucks equipped with jet dryers.
The result was an insane fireball leading to gallons and gallons of jet fuel pouring down the track toward the infield. Moments later, the stream of fuel was engulfed in flames.
Just one day after the Daytona 500 was postponed for the first time ever thanks to wet conditions, the track itself was now on the fire. Rescue crews scrambled for what else — water. Â Thankfully everyone — including Montoya and the truck driver — were fine.
Crews worked tirelessly to put out the fire and then used Tide laundry detergent and small push brooms of all things to dry the track out.
It made for a bizarre sight as the cars were stopped under a red flag, allowing the drivers to get out of their cars to walk around the track. Brad Keselowski actually had his phone in his car, and he tweeted out this picture of his view of the scene. When it was all said and done, the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite car gained well over 100,000 followers in one night.
When it was all said and done, racing finally resumed around midnight on the East Coast where two more cautions would come thanks to a pair of spectacle-like wrecks, the latter of which forced the race to finally come to a conclusion under the green-white-checker.
Photo of the Day
The delay did work out pretty well for some…
Quote of the Day
“I think every pitch was thigh-high or down, except for the one that almost hit Rasmus in the face. Everything else felt good.”
–Brett Cecil talking about the one pitch that got away and almost took out teammate Colby Rasmus’ eyeball.
Tweet of the Day
Right? This is mind-boggling.
@NESN In other news, scientists are still at a loss to explain why celebrities must pre-announce their announcements. #redundant
— Casey Wojtek (@caseywojtek) February 28, 2012
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Video of the Day
“Yep, I’m flying through the air. This is not good.”
