2022 Daytona 500 Race Review and Analysis
The 2022 Daytona 500 ended in a astonishing way. Located in Daytona Beach, Florida, this race gave fans quite the show. Coming down to the final lap Austin Cindric narrowly beat out Bubba Wallace for the race win. Cindric was having an under the radar type of afternoon and made his presence felt at the end. Cindric has now picked up his first career win in the Cup Series. Along with this, he is the 2022 Daytona 500 champ. He is the first rookie since Trevor Bayne in 2011 to win the Daytona 500.
(Austin Cindric in Victory Lane)
Throughout the race, drivers and teams faced adversity. Wrecks and cautions were an ongoing thing all day. The first major wreck of the day came from Harrison Burton. Burton went flying off of Brad Keselowski’s front bumper as the field headed for turn 3. As a result, this took a lot of heavy hitters out of the race early on. Luckily, everyone walked away ok after all wrecks. The second major incident during today’s race involved Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch, and Martin Truex jr. Reddick became loose heading into the trioval which took out a handful of strong cars. With 11 laps to go came another caution. This time it involved Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, and more. Chris Buescher who was piecing together a nice race, checked up which caused a chain reaction which led to an issue. One of the final wrecks from today came with 5 laps to go. Brad Keselowski was involved in another wreck today, he, Ricky Stenhouse jr., and Chris Buescher were all a part of this one. Aggressive racing took over and was the result of this situation. The final major wreck of the day came on the last lap. Gloves were off as every man for themselves came into play. Austin Cindric sent his fellow teammate Ryan Blaney up high into the wall which caused a pileup. Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Keselowski himself this time, and Michael McDowell were all involved. After all of this, seven cautions were recorded today. Kaz Grala and Daniel Hemric both had loose wheels early on which brought out the caution.
( Austin Cindric standing with the Harley J. Earl Trophy)
The true heartbreak moment of the race is Bubba Wallace. Wallace came so close to beating Cindric to the line. In the final two corners, Wallace went from 5th to 2nd to contend for the win. Wallace was beaten out by feet, as the race came down to the wire. Wallace was extremely dreaded and disappointed in his post race interview. In Nascar’s Super Bowl and most prestigious event, to be that close had to hurt. This is Wallace’s second time finishing 2nd in the Great American Race dating back to 2018 over a 5 year span.
Today's top ten featured some different faces, guys like David Ragan and Chase Briscoe showed up today. Both drivers made consistent runs throughout the day. Another driver that had a good run today was Ty Dillion. Finishing 11th, Dillion somewhat redeemed himself after a sloppy and over the top performance at the LA Coliseum. Dillion held his own and kept his car clean until the end. Petty GMS Motorsports will look for SuperSpeedway events to be competitive throughout the season, as they aren’t the most competitive team in the garage area.
(Austin Cindric Burning it down Post Race)
In my opinion, today’s race was great. You saw wrecks, hard racing, a sold out crowd, and a great finish. In my opinion, Nascar shouldn’t touch this superspeedway package. The next three restrictor-plate races and the two Atlanta events should be fun. Note, after the reconfiguration to Atlanta during the winter, it is now considered a superspeedway. This is because of the race package and track configuration. The new Atlanta is set to debut on March 20th for the Cup Series. Aside from that, their are a lot of positives to take away after today. Taking all of today’s action into consideration, today’s action was a 9.5 out of 10.
(A look at the sold-out crowd in Daytona as well as the flyover pre race)
As we wrap up from Daytona, Nascar will head out west. Auto Club Speedway makes its triumphant return to the Nascar schedule. Race fans haven’t seen Auto Club in action since 2020 due to Covid restrictions in California. A refresher for all race fans will take place located in Fontana, California next weekend. The two year wait is finally over, practice and qualifying will take place Saturday afternoon on FS1. Tune in Sunday, at 3:30pm for the “Wise Power 400” only on FOX. What a great speedweek and race weekend!
( All images credited to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)
For next week's race information please view the link down below:
https://www.autoclubspeedway.com/
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