Kyle Busch won Thursday night’s second Can-Am Duel at Daytona International Speedway, but it was the last-lap action behind him that could more heavily alter Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Three of the top contenders going into that lap — Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. — were among the cars heavily damaged in the crash. Johnson was running third, closing the gap on second-place Jamie McMurray when the two made contact, sparking the pileup. Truex and Kenseth slammed into Johnson, accordion style, and all three suffered heavy damage to their cars. AJ Allmendinger slammed into them as Johnson and Truex went into the outside wall.
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Kenseth was set to start on the outside front row Sunday, his first front-row start for the race, but he will drop to the rear of the field at the start of it as he moves to a backup car.
After a stellar start to the race, he found himself with nowhere to go on that closing lap. Kenseth said he saw the wreck developing and was trying to get out of the way.
"I saw the wreck happen a while before it started and tried to start slowing down and just got ran over from behind and got pushed under the wreck, so that’s beyond disappointed," Kenseth said. "You’ve got to practice at some point. You’ve got to go out there and try to get your runs and try to figure out how you can make a pass, so it all started with debris on the grille. I thought we had control of the race and we got back to second and it just didn’t work out.”He wasn’t alone in that sentiment.
After a relatively calm opening run, things started heating up a few laps earlier.
With six to go, Johnson had slipped alongside Kenseth in the battle for second, but Casey Mears beat him to the spot. After running single file for much of the race, the leaders suddenly started battling and shifting. With three to go, Busch held the lead with Mears and McMurray in second and third.
MORE: Best Daytona 500sWith two to go, Mears ran out of gas. Busch was left with a huge gap on the field, setting up an apparent fight for the lead entering the final lap. McMurray went low, Busch tried to protect his lead and the field began crashing.
"I guess it was quiet and calm there for a long time and the last lap just went kind of crazy," Busch said.
McMurray seemed baffled as to how the crash developed, while Johnson and Truex just joined Kenseth in being disappointed.
"I never felt (Johnson) touch me," McMurray said. "I don’t know if it was the disturbance in the air off my car coming up. There wasn’t a mark on the car."
Johnson, meanwhile, took the blame for racing aggressively.
“(McMurray) had a run on (Busch) and it didn’t pan out getting underneath him," Johnson, who is also going to a backup car, said. "That allowed me to come to the outside. Then Jamie came up to defend that and unfortunately I was outside of him. I could see where it was taking us; we were going to hook bumpers and crash. I tried to get out of the hole, but it didn’t work and I kind of skipped off the wall and turned around in front of everyone. It was an aggressive move. Sometimes it works and sometimes they don’t. I’m just bummed out we lost a race car."
Kenseth led the opening 23 laps before he became the latest driver during Speedweeks to be hampered by debris on his grille. He surrendered the top spot to his teammate Busch, who smoothly swung around him to take the lead with Carl Edwards holding the Joe Gibbs Racing trio in position from third.
Those three cars dominated the opening segment of the race, leading the way as the field separated into two packs. JGR held the top three positions for the first 39 laps, until pit stops separated Edwards from the front pair.
Others had problems in the race as well. Ryan Newman fell off the pace midway through the race with apparent engine trouble, ending his night on Lap 32. Teams are allowed one engine change before the start of practice on Saturday.