NASCAR #ThrowbackThursday: Sprint Unlimited at Daytona

r/NASCAR Reddit.com user /u/GH05TY – 2009 Budweiser Shootout

The 2012 is by far the most memorable of Unlimiteds to me, but 2009 had a pretty great finish too. Jamie McMurray led the field to the Green White Checkered, back when he was still in the No. 26 for Roush. Everyone still running formed a huge pack behind him, jostling for position. When they came to the white flag, Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson were side by side for second. Kevin Harvick bumped into the back of them and got very loose, and Kyle Busch had to dive onto the apron to avoid wrecking. When he came back up, he was four-wide with Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Gordon.

As they went down the backstretch, Harvick got a push first from Brian Vickers, then from Hamlin, and passed McMurray on the outside. Then, right behind them as they went into turn three, Bowyer, Johnson, and Hamlin crashed. The caution flew, and Harvick led only the final lap on his way to victory.

It had striking similarities to both the past, where Harvick nosed by Mark Martin to win the 2007 Daytona 500 as the field wrecked behind the leaders; and the future, as Kyle Busch slid onto the apron to avoid the final wreck, winding up facing the infield as sparks flew everywhere, but corrected it as he slid back up onto the track, not making any contact. It was a move nearly identical to the one he pulled in the 2012 Sprint Unlimited, which he went on to win.

Next: Martin Feigen