The Daytona 500 was delayed for rain and weather conditions and after a record wait drivers are back out on Daytona International Speedway and the coverage remains on FOX after a six hour and 22 minute rain delay and the event started back up again past 8:30 pm ET and will have a late finish for the Sprint Cup season opener and Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his second 500 race of his career at Daytona.
The day overall has been exhausting for the drivers and Earnhardt and Kyle Busch was leading when the delay occurred and a number of drivers spun out, including pit issues for Busch and trouble for Kasey Kahne and the biggest issue was the 12-car wreck on the 145th lap to end things for some drivers. That was the first of a number of wrecks, cautions and delays and now things are heading towards the final stretch and Kyle Larson was knocked out as well and now Earnhardt continues to lead heading into the final 20-30 laps.
Danica Patrick took a hit at the race and now she is out of things after the 12-car wreck she was involved in and afterwards she was interviewed and said that she was upset with what happened but that she felt okay and is looking forward to the next race. With 40 laps to go there was another crash and at the time Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in first place and there was another caution and that is the main story so far in the race and that goes along with the record delay.
Austin Dillon won the pole for the race last week and he started off in the top position and that was the second year in a row that a rookie won the pole after Patrick did it last year. Dillon was able to get past the wreck and two other drivers spun out and that caused the caution and that has been tough for drivers to deal with on top of the weather. Daytona has been delayed multiple times over the past few years and now there is another caution with 36 laps to go and this comes after Matt Kenseth won a shortened race a few years ago and two years ago the race had to go on Monday night after the issues in that event.
Fox aired the coverage of last years race and after enough time some people thought that Jimmie Johnson won it again, but naturally it was just the event from last season. Johnson had fun with it on Twitter and so did everyone else and now he is looking to get into things and Patrick is on the sidelines. On a happier note for Patrick, she hit over one million followers on Twitter and nowadays that is an accomplishment and she is the first NASCAR driver to ever do it and she did it this past week before the race at Daytona. Patrick even tops six time champion Jimmie Johnson, who has just over half a million followers and he is second on the list of current drivers.
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