Will aggressive Sprint Unlimited transfer to Daytona 500?
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Sprint Unlimited's statistics were quite limited.
Only a dozen of the 25 starters in Saturday night's NASCAR special event completed the race's full distance of 75 laps. The other 13 cars were in the garage as Matt Kenseth swept under the checkered flag to win.
The race result sheet had a column filled with repetition of one word — accident.
At race's end, 13 drivers were watching or listening to the finish from the garage area or the infield care center at Daytona International Speedway. Included in the mix were former champions Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski.
Scattered through the garage were the battered remains of their race cars, almost all seriously damaged in a series of wild crashes sparked by what some drivers called unusually aggressive driving..
"I thought it was as intense as any speedway racing we've seen in a long time — from beginning to end," said last year's winner Denny Hamlin, who parked after 45 laps. "This race last year we got single-file at some point. In this one, it never did. Everyone was so aggressive trying to keep track position.
"I don't know if the (Daytona) 500 will be like this since it's 500 miles, but certainly at the end you're going to see intense racing like this."
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Busch, sidelined by a wicked crash eight laps from the finish, called the racing "pretty intense. Guys were aggressive. Sometimes they pay the consequences for being aggressive, but overall I thought it was a good show."
The combative nature of the racing was in clear evidence with only two laps to go when Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick banged together while battling for position, an altercation that irritated Harvick and led to words between the two drivers on pit road after the race.
Second-place finisher Martin Truex Jr., who led 28 laps (after leading only one lap all last season), also pointed out the push-and-shove quality of the racing.
"I wasn't surprised by it," he said. "I was just glad it was in my (rear-view) mirror for once. I've been caught up in a lot of wrecks here over the years. The key to staying out of them is to stay out front. That's what it takes to win the 500 and be consistent here — to have fast race cars."
Kenseth voiced no surprised about the level of mayhem.
"It's what happens every year," he said. "I've seen a lot of plate races the last 15 years, and more of them end up like that than don't."
Stewart, who pushed toward the front late in the race, was sidelined in the final crash of the night.
"I just pushed trying to get back in line there," Stewart said. "I just wasn't clear. It is kind of what we all have to do. You have to push, especially this close to the end. You have to fight to get into a spot there. I either wasn't all the way clear, or didn't get there quick enough. It's just part of it. You have got to do what everybody else is doing. You have to do the same thing."
The Unlimited — with no seasonal points on the line — typically opens the door to riskier racing. With next Sunday's SpeedWeeks featured race — the Daytona 500 — being much longer, much more important and full of Sprint Cup points, racing is likely to be toned down somewhat, particularly in the early portion of the 200-lap event.
Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree