Nascar Blog

It seemed like they came out of nowhere, a bright blue freight train, the 12 and the 2 cars, with Kurt Busch giving Ryan Newman a BIG push in the final laps to win the 50th running of the Daytona 500. This was the first time Penske Racing has ever finished 1-2 and not only Roger Penske’s first Daytona 500 win, but his first restrictor plate win as well.

After watching it live and reading some of the comments they made afterwards, if they continue running and working together like they did Sunday, then they could be pretty hard to beat this year.

“Just to be part of the 50th running of the Daytona 500 … 15 years ago I was sitting in the grandstands in the Seagrave Tower,” Newman said. “Obviously, [I want to thank] Kurt Busch. Without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess going into [Turn] 3.

“But he chose to be a teammate, and that’s the most honorable thing that he could be — and I would have done the same thing for him.”

“For us to come home and push Ryan Newman to victory, I feel like I’ve got a small bit of that victory within me,” Busch said. “I was emotional pushing him across the line. It felt incredible to have a Penske 1-2 finish [Sunday]. To have Newman jump up in front of me, I thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world because I knew one of us Penske cars was going to win at that point.” Source: Newman gets last-lap push from teammate to win 500

Dale Jr. led for 12 laps, Tony Stewart 16, Ryan Newman 8, Kurt Busch 9, Denny Hamlin had 32 and Kyle Busch led the most laps at 86, among others. There were a lot more lead changes this year, the viewer ship increased by 1% over last year, and, even though Gordon wasn’t there at the finish, it was a pretty good ending too.

Here is how they finished:

1 7 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 190/5 200 Running 1,506,040
2 43 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 175/5 200 Running 1,063,870
3 6 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 170/5 200 Running 871,049
4 24 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M’s 170/10 200 Running 652,938
5 5 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 160/5 200 Running 545,959
6 35 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy 150/0 200 Running 430,015
7 10 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 151/5 200 Running 389,204
8 26 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Jim Beam 142/0 200 Running 352,921
9 3 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard 143/5 200 Running 352,920
10 18 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 139/5 200 Running 313,763
11 13 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 130/0 200 Running 329,756
12 23 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 127/0 200 Running 285,245
13 36 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 129/5 200 Running 323,496
14 16 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 121/0 200 Running 322,224
15 19 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 118/0 200 Running 319,845
16 20 44 Dale Jarrett Toyota UPS 115/0 200 Running 277,213
17 4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 117/5 200 Running 341,416
18 42 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 109/0 200 Running 291,221
19 11 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 106/0 200 Running 321,520
20 25 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 103/0 200 Running 303,978
21 27 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 100/0 200 Running 287,928
22 21 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet PEAK / Menards 97/0 200 Running 279,295
23 33 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon 94/0 200 Running 271,220
24 31 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 96/5 200 Running 284,545
25 37 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 88/0 200 Running 277,095
26 38 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal Cask No. 16 85/0 200 Running 276,888
27 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 87/5 200 Running 329,606
28 32 38 David Gilliland Ford FreeCreditReport.com 79/0 200 Running 278,746
29 2 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 81/5 200 Running 275,135
30 30 28 Travis Kvapil Ford K&N Filters 73/0 200 Running 291,202
31 12 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 70/0 200 Running 301,846
32 15 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 67/0 200 Running 290,753
33 40 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge Dodge Journey 64/0 199 Running 270,613
34 39 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Wells Fargo 61/0 197 Running 260,320
35 9 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST 58/0 194 Accident 284,945
36 28 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 60/5 194 Running 308,129
37 29 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet Principal Financial Group 52/0 194 Running 267,095
38 34 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 54/5 189 Accident 259,563
39 8 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 51/5 186 Susp. 319,599
40 22 34 John Andretti Chevrolet Makoto 43/0 184 Running 258,613
41 41 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing 40/0 171 Running 258,470
42 14 6 David Ragan Ford AAA 37/0 161 Accident 267,763
43 17 187 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet Furniture Row/DenverMattress.com 34/0 141 Engine 256,735