Wild finish at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Bottle this one and save it for the ages because you might not see another Daytona 500 finish like this in your lifetime.

It was the wildest 500 finish since 1976 when David Pearson and Richard Petty wrecked into the trioval lawn coming to the checkered flag and Pearson went on to win. Kevin Harvick passed leader Mark Martin heading into the fourth turn on the final lap of an overtime finish and beat the 48-year-old veteran and perennial runner-up to by mere feet.

The finish - the margin of victory was listed as 0.020 seconds - was the closest in the Daytona 500 since NASCAR instituted electronic scoring in 1993 and the eighth Cup finish ever.

As the two raced to the checkered, 10 cars spun, wrecked, rolled over and caught fire behind them in a finish of mass confusion.

As smoke enveloped the front stretch from the burning car of Harvick’s teammate Clint Bowyer and tire smoke from other wrecked cars scattered across the trioval, Harvick parked his car not far from the carnage, did a small burnout and then jumped joyously out of the Richard Childress Racing Chevy where he was greeted by teammate and third-place finisher Jeff Burton.

Martin drove to the opening of pit road where cars are checked and then to the garage, signaling that Harvick had indeed won.

And as late as two hours after the checkered flag, NASCAR was still trying to explain the finish. It first said the race ended under caution when Bowyer’s car barrel-rolled down the front stretch while the cars that were wrecking behind him were already off the track. Because Harvick was ahead of Martin, he won. It then said the race ended under green and then changed that explanation to say the yellow flag flew after the checkered flag.

Either way, the victory stands and a week that up until Sunday was destined to be remembered for a cheating scandal will now fondly be recalled for a furious finish that befuddled not only the 180,000 fans in attendance but NASCAR as well.

Mike Wallace was fourth, David Ragan - in the Roush Racing Ford that Martin drove for 19 years - finished fifth, Elliott Sadler sixth, Kasey Kahne seventh and David Gillialand eighth. Joe Nemechek - Martin’s Ginn Racing teammate - finished ninth and three-time champion Jeff Gordon, who struggled for most of the day and was involved in the final melee, was 10th.

The 500 victory was the first for Harvick, who also won Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race and the first for Childress since the late Dale Earnhardt won in 1998. Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Harvick came from sixth on the final restart, caught Martin coming off the third turn and then passed him. Martin’s car broke loose momentarily but he gathered it up and the two raced to the finish line as chaos erupted behind them. The caution flag flew as they crossed the finish line.

“I didn’t ask for a win in the Daytona 500, I asked for a chance and I let it slip through my fingers,” Martin said after the race.

Martin, driving in a part-time, 26-race Nextel Cup role in a Ginn Racing Chevy, appeared to have the race locked up as he held off hard-charging Kyle Busch over the final laps. A multi-car wreck on the backstretch with 4 1/2 laps to go caused the race to be red-flagged.

The race restarted with two, green-white-checkered laps to go. As Martin’s former Roush teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth diced with Busch and others in the hungry, angry pack, Martin held the point until Harvick made his charge.

Asked if NASCAR should have thrown the caution flag as the cars were wrecking, Martin replied: “You’re asking tough questions,” adding that he was not aware of the carnage.

“It’s never over,” he said. “I never saw a yellow flag. I sure as heck wasn’t going to quit racing. All I was looking at was the start-finish line. I had a Coca-Cola afterwards and all is good. I’m very proud of what this team did for me this weekend.

“No one wants to see a grown man cry and I’m not going to cry,” he closed.

The finish for Martin, who has lived at the Spruce Creek fly-in about 10 minutes south of speedway for 10 years, was his best in the 500, his previous top effort being third.

For his part, Harvick, whose 34th starting spot was the lowest of any 500 winner, was ecstatic.

“It’s hard to put into words,” he said.

“It was the wildest thing I’ve been a part of in a long time. We just held the pedal down and hoped for the best.”

As for the finish that deprived crowd favorite Martin of his long-sought-after victory, Harvick was forthright.

“I knew when I got out of the car I wasn’t going to be the good guy,” he said. ” But that’s just the way it works. Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. And fortunately today was our day to win.”

Harvick ran as low as 29th with 20 laps go and was running outside the top 10 when Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch dominated. They both obviously had the best cars and appeared headed toward a showdown for the victory when they wrecked on lap 152 in the fourth turn.

While it appeared second-place Busch hit first-place Stewart and turned him into the wall, Busch apologized immediately after the wreck. Stewart didn’t blame Busch, saying he mishandled in the corner and his car got away from him.

Kurt Busch finished 41st and Stewart 43rd.

“It scared me a little bit because it kind of reminded me of the (Dale) Earnhardt hit,” Stewart said.

Kyle Busch inherited the lead and held it until Martin Truex Jr. took it on lap 157 and it then bounced around like a hot potato until the end. Kyle Busch, who was caught up in the final wreck, finished 24th, capping a week in which he led the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race, one of the two 150-qualifying races for the 500, and Saturday’s Busch event as well, only to come away empty.