2007 Daytona 500

The Daytona 500 was confirmed to be included in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series' 2007 schedule in August 2006.^[5] It was the first of 36 scheduled stock car races for the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the 49th annual edition of the event. The race was held on February 18, 2007 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, with a scheduled distance of 200 laps and 500 mi (800 km).^[6] The track is a 2.5 mi (4.0 km) superspeedway and has four corners, which are banked as high as 31 degrees.^[7] The front stretch, where the start-finish line is located, is banked at 18 degrees, while the back stretch has three-degree banking.^[6] The event was first introduced to the series' calendar in February 1959 and became the season-opening race of the series in 1982. It is considered one of NASCAR's crown jewel races, alongside the Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500, and Brickyard 400.^[8][9] Jimmie Johnson was the defending race winner.^[10]

Sixty-one cars were officially entered for the Daytona 500,^[11] representing four different manufacturers and 29 teams.^[12][13] Among the many stories heading into the event was the Cup Series debut of Toyota, which became the first foreign car manufacturer to compete in the series since Alfa Romeo in 1962.^[14] Toyota supplied their Camry vehicle for Bill Davis Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), and the newly-formed Red Bull Racing Team.^[15] High expectations surrounded Juan Pablo Montoya, a winner in Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, as he was set to begin his highly publicized rookie season with Chip Ganassi Racing.^[16] Former Champ Car World Series driver A. J. Allmendinger also prepared for his series debut as he was teamed with Brian Vickers at the Red Bull Racing Team;^[17] Vickers' former seat at Hendrick Motorsports was taken by Casey Mears.^[18] Mark Martin ended his 19-year tenure with Roush Fenway Racing to race part-time with Ginn Racing beginning at Daytona, allowing David Ragan to replace him in the No. 6 car.^[19] James Hylton, the 1966 Rookie of the Year, hoped to become the oldest driver to start a Cup Series race at 72 years old with his self-owned Chevrolet.^[20] Eight-time ARCA Re/Max Series champion Frank Kimmel joined Fast Track Racing in his attempt to make his series debut.^[6]

To prepare for the race, NASCAR hosted six days of testing split into twelve sessions, named the Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder, at Daytona International Speedway; the first three sessions were held from January 8 to 10, and the latter three took place from January 15 to 17. The sessions began at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05:00), were paused for an hour-long lunch break at 12:00 PM, and ended at 5:00 PM.^[21] Derrike Cope, Elliott, Kevin Lepage, and Morgan Shepherd did not take part in any of the testing sessions. Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon were substituted by Mike McLaughlin and P. J. Jones, respectively, with Gordon opting to compete in the Dakar Rally.^[22]

On the morning of January 8, Tony Raines was quickest of the 25 participants with a speed of 183.974 mph (296.077 km/h). The afternoon session that day was cancelled due to rainfall and rescheduled to January 11. Between the 26 drivers who completed laps on January 9, Jamie McMurray topped the speed charts in the morning session at 184.090 mph (296.264 km/h), and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 186.606 mph (300.313 km/h) lap made him fastest in the afternoon session. On January 10, McLaughlin posted the fastest speed in the morning at 184.483 mph (296.897 km/h), while Jeff Green was quickest in the afternoon with a speed of 186.722 mph (300.500 km/h). To end the first week of testing, Ricky Rudd was fastest between 16 drivers on the morning of January 11 at 186.405 mph (299.990 km/h).^[22]

Because rain had drenched the track until 11:00 AM, the morning and afternoon sessions were combined and the lunch break was cancelled for January 15. With 34 drivers taking part, David Gilliland topped the speed charts at 185.090 mph (297.873 km/h). Montoya was quickest on the morning of January 16 with a speed of 184.574 mph (297.043 km/h), but collided with the wall as Mike Wallace spun. Ryan Newman's lap speed of 186.540 mph (300.207 km/h) made him quickest of the afternoon session. With five minutes left in the session, Kurt Busch's engine expired and he parked off-track with a trail of smoke. On January 17, Kurt Busch posted the fastest speed of 191.188 mph (307.687 km/h) with a Car of Tomorrow, set to debut in the Food City 500, which utilized a 1 ⅛-inch restrictor plate instead of the standard ⅞-inch plate. The afternoon session, which ended at 1:30 PM due to rain, was led by Paul Menard with a speed of 187.099 mph (301.107 km/h).^[23]

Six practice sessions were held prior to the race. The first two sessions on February 10 lasted 120 and 90 minutes, respectively. The next two on February 14 ran for 55 and 50 minutes. A 60-minute session was held on February 16, followed by an 80-minute session the next day.^[24] Rudd posted the fastest lap of the first practice session with a time of 48.374 seconds, with Robert Yates Racing (RYR) teammate Gilliland in second, Sterling Marlin in third, Jeff Gordon in fourth, and Elliott Sadler in fifth.^[25] The session was briefly halted for Dave Blaney, whose engine had expired.^[26] Rudd was again fastest during the second practice session with a 48.190-second lap, besting Marlin, Gilliland, Jeremy Mayfield, and Jeff Gordon.^[27]

The qualifying session was held on February 11.^[24] Unlike most NASCAR races, it only determined the top two starting positions for the Daytona 500. Positions third through 39th would be determined by the Gatorade Duels on February 15; the four fastest drivers of qualifying who weren't already locked in to the race would occupy the last four positions, three if a champion's provisional was to be used for the most recent series champion that wasn't already guaranteed to compete in the race.^[6] With a lap of 48.304 seconds, Gilliland earned his first career pole position and was joined on the grid's front row by Rudd, who was almost two tenths of a second slower. It was the second time, and the first since 2000, that two RYR drivers qualified on the front row in the Daytona 500.^[28]

Two days after qualifying, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne were both docked 50 Drivers' Championship points and their entries lost 50 Owners' Championship points after NASCAR officials discovered unapproved holes in their cars which enhanced their aerodynamics. Their qualifying times were also disallowed, forcing them to start at the rear for the second Duel race. In addition, their crew chiefs, Robbie Reiser and Kenny Francis, were suspended for the first four races of the season and fined $50,000.^[30][31] Kahne's Evernham Motorsports teammates, Scott Riggs and Sadler, were found to have illegal bolts in their spoilers and were penalized with a loss of 25 drivers' and owners' points, while their crew chiefs (Rodney Childers and Josh Browne) faced a two-race suspension and a $25,000 fine.^[32][33] The following day, Michael Waltrip's crew chief David Hyder and MWR's director of competition Bobby Kennedy were both escorted out of Daytona and suspended indefinitely after NASCAR officials found an unidentified illegal substance in two of his intake manifolds and confiscated Waltrip's car.^[34] Hyder was levied a $100,000 fine, the largest in the history of the sport,^[a] while Waltrip was docked 100 drivers' points and his entry 100 owners' points.^[36][37]

Kenseth was the quickest driver of the third practice session with a time of 47.801 seconds; Reed Sorenson, Mears, Wallace, and Derrike Cope rounded out the top-five.^[38] Riggs, Rudd, Menard, Hamlin, Carl Edwards, and Gilliland all scraped the wall and damaged their cars throughout the session due to the windy air conditions.^[26] Newman topped the fourth practice session later that day at 47.957 seconds, ahead of Jeff Burton, Blaney, Stewart, and Greg Biffle.^[39] Stewart and Gordon won the Gatorade Duels the day after and secured the third and fourth positions on the starting grid, respectively.^[40] However, Gordon's car was found to be an inch too low in post-race inspections because the shock mount and spacers intended to hold the rear shock absorber were misaligned, and he was thus forced to start the Daytona 500 in 42nd place.^[41] Rudd was fastest in the fifth practice session with a timed lap of 47.315 seconds, with Biffle in second, Martin Truex Jr. in third, Kurt Busch in fourth, and Blaney in fifth.^[42] David Stremme's lap time of 47.342 seconds made him the quickest driver of the final practice session, besting Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter, Joe Nemechek, and Ragan.^[43]

Kelly Clarkson, the first winner of American Idol and spokesperson for the 2007 edition of "NASCAR Day", performed in the pre-race "Salute to America" concert, with her set consisting of Since U Been Gone, One Minute (from her third studio album My December) and Miss Independent. Big and Rich sang the National Anthem, while Academy Award winning actor Nicolas Cage served as the grand marshal of the event, giving the command to have the drivers start their engines in a low-key manner. Baseball ironman and 2007 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame Cal Ripken Jr. drove the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 pace car for the pre-race laps, and Phil Parsons, the brother of Benny Parsons, who had died of complications from lung cancer prior to the season, was given the honor of dropping the green flag for the race.

David Gilliland was in the front of the field when the green flag waved. The first caution came on lap 16 when Boris Said moved up the track coming off of turn 2, most likely unaware that David Reutimann was there, and spun. He had very minor damage and continued the race from there. The race then stayed under the green flag for about 60 laps, during which Tony Stewart took the lead from Kurt Busch. On lap 79, Kyle Petty hit the wall after his rear tire blew out, bringing out another yellow flag. He went behind the wall for repairs. Reutimann obtained the free pass to return to the lead lap. Kurt Busch took the lead again during most of the next green flag period, only being passed by Ryan Newman for one lap on lap 128, and then by Stewart again on lap 150.

On lap 152, Stewart got on the apron in turn 4, got loose, and spun into Kurt Busch. He spun to a halt, while Busch kept the engine going and went to the garage area for repairs. However, with 46 laps to go, he was unable to continue and did not finish the race. A fourth caution came on lap 175 when a 5-car crash involving Reutimann, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Green and Tony Raines occurred in the backstretch. Mark Martin took the lead shortly before the yellow flag came out. Another crash which took out Ken Schrader happened on lap 186, after contact from Dave Blaney who was parked for the remainder of the race (who may have been unaware of his right front tire being flat according to Darrell Waltrip). With 5 laps to go, Matt Kenseth ran into Jamie McMurray, who hit the wall and collected Dale Earnhardt Jr. with him. Ricky Rudd and Martin Truex Jr. were collected as well. Rudd remained on the lead lap, but Truex fell a lap down. McMurray and Earnhardt Jr. both were out of the race, finishing 31st and 32nd, respectively. The race was delayed for approximately 12 minutes for cleanup under the red flag. This set up a green-white-checkered finish.

With 2 laps to go, an outside line began to form, with Kevin Harvick, Kenseth and Jeff Burton. Martin came to the white flag looking for a victory. On the backstretch, Kyle Busch, sitting 2nd place, tried both ways to get around Martin. Meanwhile, Kenseth began to bump-draft Harvick, with Burton in tow. Harvick flew by David Stremme, Gilliland, Mike Wallace, David Ragan and Greg Biffle. Busch, trying to get around Martin and block Harvick at the same, nearly squeezed Harvick into the wall as Harvick zipped past him and pulled even with Martin. Harvick and Martin, Busch and Kenseth, and Biffle and Burton were side by side out of turn 4. With the checkered flag in sight, Busch hit the apron, getting him loose. He spun out and started a chain reaction collecting most of the field. Clint Bowyer took the worst hit, turning over on his roof and skidding across the finish line on it while on fire before flipping back upright in the grass. Harvick beat Martin by .02 of a second to claim the victory. After being 6th place out of turn 4, Burton finished 3rd. Mike Wallace and David Ragan were surprises, rounding out the Top 5.