Drive4COPD 300 Recap

James Buescher earns 1st career Nationwide win

Yes, she did it. Danica Patrick sat on the pole for the first time in her Nationwide career. The first women on pole in NASCAR since 1994 (Shawna Robinson) and the first female pole sitter at Daytona. Defending Daytona 500 champ Trevor Bayne shared the second row with her in 2nd. When the green flag dropped Danica was running strong. She led many laps drafting with boss and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Trevor Bayne and Elliott Sadler challenged them for the lead. Many lead changes between Tony Stewart, Trevor Bayne, Sam Hornish Jr and Dale Earnhardt Jr. sumed up the first laps of the race.The first caution came out when Jason Bowles' engine blows. We saw a race similar to the Bud Shootout. It looked more like a junkyard than a NASCAR race. Early on in the race polesitter Danica Patrick was hit by teammate Cole Whitt. She lost control and hit the wall leaving her with front nose damage. She returned to the garage not coming back out 28 laps later with a whole new front nose.
She was mad with Cole Whitt and went straight to the hauler. No interview needed! There was a wide variety of drafting partners from Stewart and Logano to Dillon and Earnhardt Jr. We also saw a lot of pack racing and drafting at the same time. Almost every lap had multiple 3-wide situations. They looked like swarm of bees coming down the backstretch.
Brian Scott got into the wall twice, but only 1 caution resulted in that.

Here it comes...the BIG one! At least 20 cars were crushed and beaten on lap 103. Those involved included  Kenny Wallace, Ryan Truex,, Denny Hamlin, Jeremy Clements, Justin Allgaier, Robert Richardson Jr., Michael Annett, T.J. Bell, Reed Sorenson, Johanna Long and others. Bayne is shuffled up the track getting into James Buescher causing a chain reaction. Allgaier was pushed on top of the Reed Sorenson's 52 car.
A red flag was issued as the officals tried to pry a fender from under the SAFER barrier.When all is clear we go back to green, Kurt Busch is leading.
Caution #7 is out after Sam Hornish Jr. is turned around when going 3-wide into Turn 4. Many cars are collected including Michael Annett Jr., Danny Efland, Scott Speed, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Eric McClure, Joe Nemechek, David Ragan and others. Joey Logano makes a great save after being tagged by one of the victims. He continues on with little damage.

Joey Logano and Trevor Bayne teamed up and charged to the front. Catching up with the leader, Kurt and Kyle Busch things get tight. Tony Stewart tries to squeeze through, but Kurt Busch tries to block and gets into the back of Logano and sends all of the leaders into the wall. Stenhouse Jr, Stewart, Bayne, Logano, both Busch brothers and Kasey Kahne. Kyle Busch suffers a hard hit dead on into the wall as well as Nationwide Champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Both drivers were able to walk away. James Buecher sneaks by all the wreckage and takes the win under caution. Earning his first Nationwide win Brad Keselowski, Elliott Sadler, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon round off the Top 5. This just proves anyone can win at Daytona. Rookie John King won last night's Camping World Truck Series race and today Buesher claims his first win. This could very well be a mirror image of tomorrow's race. The Daytona 500 airs at 1 pm EST. on FOX.