NASCAR: Despite success, Toyota comes up shy at Daytona

Despite last-lap shenanigans of the 2021 Daytona 500, the race capped off an otherwise successful NASCAR season-opening campaign for Toyota.

The #18 M&M Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch benefitted from last-lap antics of Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to win the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season-opening Busch Clash exhibition race at the Daytona International Speedway road course.

Busch ran in third place when Elliott put Blaney in the wall, but Elliott’s move went wrong and he was unable to win the race himself. Busch passed both en route to the victory.

In single-car qualifying, Christopher Bell was the top dog for Joe Gibbs Racing in seventh place, but it was 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace leading Toyota in fourth. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin, Busch and Martin Truex Jr. were 11th, 16th and 28th, respectively.

In the first Bluegreen Vacations Duel, Bell finished in second place with Hamlin in 13th. In the second, Wallace finished in second with Busch in fourth and Truex in 12th.

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Both Hamlin and Truex started out running cautious races in the Daytona 500, choosing to avoid trouble in advance. It worked for the former, as it nearly led to a three-peat for Hamlin. Almost.

The 2021 season got off to a smashing start. Literally. The “Big One” didn’t take long to materialize, and Truex sustained serious damage in the lap 14 melee that was ironically the result of a strong push from Busch to Bell’s #20 Toyota. Bell caught Aric Almirola’s #10 Ford, which made contact with Alex Bowman’s #48 Chevrolet, and that wrapped up another 14 cars.

Truex made it back onto the track after the lengthy rain delay, but he was a non-factor through the rest of the race, hobbling seven laps off the lead lap when the checkered flag flew.

Wallace, Bell, Busch and Hamlin were left to carry the Toyota banner for the duration.

Hamlin, propelled at different times by Busch and Wallace, won the first two stages, with a strong challenge from Wallace at the end of the second stage.

With 19 laps to go in the second stage, Bell cut a tire and made contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s #47 Chevrolet. Bell never made it back to the front of the pack. He led 32 laps before the incident.

Busch, Wallace, and Hamlin ran in the top 10 for most of the rest of the race.

Everything was going to plan, but with 28 laps remaining, the Toyotas pitted too soon after the Fords, instead of waiting for the field to be settled to time their pit exits better.

The Toyotas came off pit road too far away from one another, and they were not nearly fast enough to blend in with the stampeding Mustangs roaring by.

Busch and Wallace were never able to join back up with Hamlin to make an effective drafting group, and Wallace fell a lap off the lead lap after needing to pit again. Even so, by the last lap, Busch and Hamlin were both running in the top nine.

Down the back straightaway on the last lap, eventual winner and then third place runner Michael McDowell made contact with the #2 Ford of Brad Keselowski, which led to contact with the #22 Ford of Joey Logano, causing a massive wreck.

Busch was unable to get out of the way and ran head-on into the skidding #2 Ford, completely decimating the M&M’s car in a blaze.

Fortunately, Busch, Keselowski and everyone else involved in the accident safely walked away from it.

At the checkered flag, Hamlin finished in fifth place with Busch in 14th, Bell in 16th, Wallace in 17th and Truex in 25th.

Hamlin gave a valiant effort towards a three-peat, leading 98 of the 200 laps, but he was ultimately too fast for his own good when it mattered most.