The last person Jeff Gordon expected to see ahead of him in a furious finish to the Daytona 500 was Dale Earnhardt Jr. When he did, "I thought it was over, done," Gordon said.
As it turned out, Earnhardt found just enough speed to scare Gordon, not to beat him.
PHOTO: AP
Gordon grabbed the lead from Earnhardt three laps from the scheduled end, then held off Kurt Busch and Earnhardt in extra laps Sunday to become only the fifth driver to win three Daytonas.
It was one of the wildest finishes in the 47-year history of NASCAR's biggest race. There were four lead changes in the last nine laps and two crashes involving a total of 17 cars in the last 20 laps.
Earnhardt, the defending champion, came from 30th with less than 160km to go to grab a late lead, only to see Gordon pass him seconds before a caution flag waved on the 198th of the scheduled 200 laps.
The race went three extra laps to finish under a green flag, and Gordon hung on to beat Busch by two car lengths.
"Oh, my goodness, what an amazing day," a jubilant Gordon said. "Three, baby!"
Gordon, a four-time NASCAR champion, joins Richard Petty (7), Cale Yarborough (4) and Bobby Allison and Dale Jarrett (3) with three or more Daytona victories.
Gordon first won it in 1997 and again in 1999.
"This one's sweeter than the other two," he said. "It was an amazing finish."
Tony Stewart dominated the race for a second straight year, leading 107 laps, and was well on the way to his first 500 win before a rash of late caution flags set up the dramatic ending.
Earnhardt, who struggled with handling through most of the race and had not led a lap, suddenly dove to the outside, just in front of Gordon and charged past Stewart to grab the top spot on the 197th lap.
"I was real, real happy," Earnhardt said. "I'm telling you, man, the car was way, way off. It was hard. It was amazing the difference between the car [at the end] and maybe 50 laps before then. I mean, it was really fast."
When Earnhardt charged to the lead, Gordon thought the race was over.
"I thought maybe Junior was having engine or maybe handling problems," Gordon said. "Then he just flipped a switch or something and there he was.
"I didn't even think we could get up beside him, let alone pass him."
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS