Busch Capitalizes on Blaney-Elliott Wreck to Win the Clash

Since 1979, the Busch Clash has been a highly anticipated fixture of NASCAR Speedweeks — the week of events leading up to the Daytona 500. The exhibition race allows the best-of-the-best in the sport to knock the rust off, so to speak, and become reacquainted with the car before the season begin. This year, the event was open to 2020 playoff drivers, race winners, pole sitters, and stage winners as well as former Clash winners and Daytona 500 pole sitters and champions. Traditionally, this race takes place on the Daytona Speedway oval, however, to shake things up for 2021, NASCAR announced the race would play out on the 14-turn Daytona Road Course instead. Though fans were skeptical about the change, the race certainly did not disappoint.

LAP 1: Starting position was determined by a random draw, putting the #12 Ford of Ryan Blaney in pole position. When the green flag flew, Blaney was quickly under attack from Denny Hamlin in the #11 Toyota. By Turn 6, Hamlin had overtaken him for the lead.

CAUTION – LAP 7: The first yellow flag was brought out for debris on the backstretch. The debris in question was dirt caused by cars clipping the corner of the chicane, tearing up the grass, and dragging dirt onto the racing surface. There was so much dirt on the track that several cars were covered, and drivers were concerned for visibility issues.

CAUTION – LAP 15: The caution flag waved again for the scheduled competition caution which allowed teams to refuel for the first time in the race since they were not permitted prior to this caution. Hamlin lost the lead to Kurt Busch on pit road.

LAP 18: When the race restarted, Kurt Busch overshot Turn 1 and went sailing into the run-off area. Lucky, Busch didn’t hit anything and was able to quickly turn his #1 Chevrolet around and rejoin the field near the back of the pack.

CAUTION – LAP 21: The #41 of Cole Custer stalled on the front stretch and brought out the third yellow flag. Custer appeared to be the victim of a mechanical failure as his car smoked and flames spewed from the rear. However, after a brief encounter with a fire extinguisher and a quick stop in the pits, Custer restarted the car and continued. He would go on to finish in second-last place.

CAUTION – LAP 27: The final caution flag flew for the #19 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr who spun and made heavy contact with the wall in Turn 10, which took him out of the race.

Strategy came into play when 14 drivers pitted, including Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin, and 6 drivers stayed out. The #9 of Chase Elliott, who started the race from the rear of the field as a penalty for ‘unapproved adjustments’, inherited the lead.

LAP 30: When the race restarted with 5 laps to go, Elliott appeared to be pulling away from the field. However, within 4 laps, Blaney’s fresher tires proved useful as he passed Elliott with just 1 to go.

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 35: Heading into the front stretch chicane on the last lap, Elliott dive-bombed Blaney just as Blaney took a sharp right turn to block. The maneuver resulted in Blaney spinning into the outside wall and Elliott struggling to accelerate after the impact, which allowed Kyle Busch in 3^rd place to sail past and steal the win. This was Busch’s second Clash victory in his career.

RESULTS:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Chase Elliott
3. Joey Logano
4. Tyler Reddick
5. William Byron
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Alex Bowman
8. Erik Jones
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Matt DiBenedetto
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
12. Austin Dillon
13. Aric Almirola
14. Ryan Newman
15. Kevin Harvick
16. Ty Dillon
17. Chris Buescher
18. Brad Keselowski
19. Kurt Busch
20. Cole Custer
21. Martin Truex Jr