On superspeedways, NASCAR racing has all the composure of a shopping cart with one bad wheel. And Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts season opener at Daytona International Speedway? That was less shopping cart, and more demolition derby in a hurricane.
On paper, it looked almost civilized. Austin Hill led 78 laps, swept the stages, and pocketed his 15th career win. Simple. Clinical. Efficient.
In reality, it was chaos with a timing loop.
Fourteen of the 38 cars failed to see the checkered flag. Several of the ones that did looked like they’d gone a few rounds with a belt sander. And yet, somehow, some of those battered survivors still limped into the top 10. Daytona doesn’t reward the pristine. It rewards the stubborn.
The newly branded O’Reilly Auto Parts Series—taking over title sponsorship from Xfinity this season—didn’t so much launch as it tripped over its own shoelaces. Before the field even reached the start-finish line at the start of the race, Mason Maggio, Jeremy Clements, Brennan Poole and Anthony Alfredo accordion’d themselves into a mess that sent cars scattering. Everyone continued except Maggio, whose afternoon effectively ended before it began.
After a lap 6 restart, things calmed down. Polesitter Hill controlled the field in a neat single-file line, looking for all the world like a man on a Sunday drive. That tranquility lasted right up until it didn’t.
With fewer than five laps left in Stage 1, Hill was blocking both lanes like a bouncer at an overbooked nightclub, driving more by rear-view mirror than windshield. Two laps from the end, Corey Day spun off Turn 4 but avoided contact. NASCAR held the caution. They wouldn’t have that luxury a lap later.
Again off Turn 4, Sammy Smith looped it after contact with Sam Mayer. Sheldon Creed, Gio Ruggiero and Nick Sanchez were collected. Caution out. Stage over. Hill victorious.
Pit stops shuffled the order and Jesse Love emerged with the lead. He fended off Hill, William Sawalich and Justin Allgaier for a while, but on lap 45 Hill decided he’d indulged this democracy long enough and took the lead back.
Late in Stage 2, Brandon Jones and Rajah Caruth muscled their way forward. Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith joined the fray. It was elbows out and no apologies. But when the dust settled, Hill again had the answers, completing the stage sweep.
The final stage required at least one green-flag pit stop. Knowing they had the pace, the Richard Childress Racing camp opted to short pit. Hill led Love to pit road on lap 81. Love and Blaine Perkins emerged ahead of Hill, and the cycle handed Love the lead on lap 91.
Right on cue, Daytona did what Daytona does.
Racing around 14th place, Ryan Sieg came down into Jeb Burton entering Turn 1. The aftermath collected five more cars, including Natalie Decker, Mayer, Clements, Taylor Gray and Brandon Jones. The damage was extensive enough that NASCAR red-flagged the race to clean it up.
When the red was lifted after 13 minutes, Hill was among those who pitted under caution and restarted 12th with 25 laps to go. Love led. Two laps later, Hill was fifth. One lap after that, he was second. Subtlety is not part of his skill set.
Another crash interrupted the charge. In the pack behind the leaders entering Turn 3, Sawalich got loose and triggered a 13-car pileup that swept up Corey Day, Taylor Gray, Harrison Burton and Caruth among others.
Green returned with 13 to go. But two laps later, debris brought out yet another caution—just after Hill had reclaimed the lead. With eight laps remaining, the green flag flew again and the fight between Love and Hill intensified. Then, with five laps to go, Caruth was turned after contact with Carson Hocevar and slammed the outside wall. Caution number seven. Two-lap shootout.
At that point, diplomacy was over. The gloves were off. The hornets’ nest detonated.
When the smoke cleared, there were no more yellows. Hill crossed the line first. Love, who had spent most of the afternoon trading blows for the lead, was unceremoniously shuffled back to ninth.
Justin Allgaier emerged from the madness in second. Ryan Sieg—who had been a lap down earlier—finished third. Sammy Smith and Ryan Ellis completed the top five.
Carson Kvapil and Blaine Perkins finished ahead of Love, while Rajah Caruth, after a day that included a trip to the wall, somehow dragged his car home in tenth.
It was, statistically, a race dominated by Austin Hill. It was, visually, a 300-mile bar fight with pace laps.
RACE RESULTS
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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