A NASCAR Rookie Wins the 2011 Daytona 500

All the pseudo-NASCAR fans can cry a river and say it's not like it used to be. They can cry that restrictor plate racing is just 'follow the leader'. They can also whine that there is a NASCAR conspiracy to promote Dale Earnhardt Jr. What they can not argue is that the 2011 Daytona 500 produced a record number of lead changes. It produced more drivers teaming up to make a run to the front than ever before, and it showed that just about any two car combination was capable of running to the front.

Wrecks saw most of last season's Chase contenders taken out or dealt problems throughout the race. Richard Childress Racing drivers Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton both blew engines in the two by two racing that defined racing at Daytona this year.

Rookie Trevor Bayne continued to show how strong his Wood Brothers #21 could be teaming up with just about anyone who would let the fast Ford push them to the front. Regan Smith in the Furniture Row Chevy also showed that you don't have to have a multi-car team based in the Charlotte area to run up front with the big sponsor teams.

The other story of the race was the tire Goodyear brought along for the newly paved track. Most teams ran just about the whole race on only one set of left side tires and only changed right sides due to heat in the tire and the 80 degree heat in the Florida air.

At the restart with 15 laps to go it was still anybody's race with Newman leading the way, all four manufactures in the top ten, a rookie in the top ten and underfunded teams in the top14. Long time restrictor plate partners Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. teamed together to run up to the front and race with Newman,/Hamlin and Kurt Busch / Regan Smith combinations.

At five laps to go it was still any one of ten cars who could win the race. Out of no where Bobby Labonte and Robbie Gordon stuck their noses up into the top four before dropping back. David Ragan and rookie Trevor Bayne made it three wide for the lead with four laps to go when a freight train of cars led by Kurt Busch turned the #78 of Smith up into Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin bringing out the 15th caution with three laps to go.

This set up a green-white-checkered finish with David Ragan leading rookie Trevor Bayne in second, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart in third and fourth and Kyle Busch and Bobby Labonte in fifth and sixth. Dale Earnhardt was forced to pit for a tire going down basically giving up his chance of winning the Daytona 500 and leaving him 18th on the restart.

On the restart Ragan and Bayne pulled ahead, Robby Gordon spun after a push from David Gilliland and forced several cars to check up causing Ryan Newman to hit the wall and take out Martin Truex and Earnhardt Jr. Then NASCAR threw a black flag on the #6 of Ragan for an illegal pass as that caution flag fell. This set up a second of three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish. Kyle Busch was forced to pit for a tire going down.

After Ragan took his black flag it left Trevor Bayne on the point for the restart with Stewart in second. Bobby Labonte was in third and Mark Martin after going three laps down early found himself in fourth on the restart.

Carl Edwards and David Gilliland came out of nowhere to pass Busch and Stewart but they did not have enough for the 20 year old rookie driving for the part time team as Trevor Bayne held off the field to take the 2011 Daytona 500. Edwards was second with Gilliland in third and Bobby Labonte in fourth.

The 2011 Daytona 500 produce all the racing action that new pavement, new tires, a new car and new drivers could possibly produce.