Coke Zero 400 at Daytona Wrap-Up

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Saturday night's race at Daytona was one of the better races I've seen this season. I always love restrictor plate racing because you never know what is going to happen even on the last lap. This year's Coke Zero 400 did not disappoint with the race coming down to the last few corners.

Throughout the entire race, the team to beat was the 16-17 tag-team of Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth (the Daytona 500 winner). Kenseth led the most laps with 89 while Biffle was out front for 35. They were hurt by a late caution as Jimmie Johnson was punted ducking down to pit road. This started a chain reaction accident taking out multiple cars including Jeff Gordon who was in third at the time. While Biffle and Kenseth were not involved, they already committed to pit road. Before they hit the line, the red lights came out signaling pit road was closed. While Kenseth drove through, Biffle elected to pit forcing Kenseth to re-pit and they both restarted in the back from Biffle's penalty.

While the pair did eventually work their way back up, Biffle got loose causing a 15-car accident. On the last lap, it was down to Kenseth/Biffle, Stewart/Kahne and Harvick/Burton. Coming back tot he start/finish line, it was just Kenseth, Stewart, and Burton (who had an amazing save on his #31 Chevy). At the finish, Stewart was the winner taking his fourth Daytona summer win while continuing to chase an elusive Daytona 500 win. Burton took second while the dominating Kenseth walked away with third. The drafting partners of all three were taken out in the last lap wreck though Kahne did finish in the top 10.

I did want to point out the frustrating coverage by TNT this weekend as they spent the entire race "with continuous coverage." Their idea of continuous coverage is nothing like ESPN's last year. Instead they played a commercial in the bottom third of the screen every two minutes plugging "non-stop coverage" then they would still go to commercial breaks anyway. Even after the commercial ended, the bottom third of the screen would continue to plug the sponsor limiting the size of the actual racing (i feel bad for anyone with a small TV since you couldn't see anything). Their coverage has been horrible this season often switching to less important camera angles while races were going on for the win. I hope they fix their problems soon or NASCAR dumps their coverage.

In other news, there is a surprising report of AJ Allmendinger being suspended for failing a random drug test at Kentucky. Since this report showed up 90 minutes before the race, Penske was forced to rush Sam Hornish Jr. to the track where he arrived just minutes before the green flag. Hornish ended up 33rd after a tire problem caused him to spin just pas half way. Penske officials say they will meet with Allmendinger to grasp the situation.

See everyone next week at Loudon, NH for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.

Results:
1. Tony Stewart #14 Mobil 1 Chevrolet
2. Jeff Burton #31 Wheaties Chevolet
3. Matt Kenseth #17 Zest Ford
4. Joey Logano #20 Dollar General Toyota
5. Ryan Newman #39 Aspen Dental
6. Carl Edwards #99 Subway Ford
7. Kasey Kahne #5 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet
8. Brad Keselowski #2 Miller-Light Dodge
9. Michael Waltrip #55 Aaron's Toyota
10. Bobby Labonte #47 Kingsford Toyota

Standings:
1. Matt Kenseth 676
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -25
3. Greg Biffle -44 (+1)
4. Jimmie Johnson -58 (-1)
5. Tony Stewart -84 (+4)