Underdog Michael McDowell wins the 2021 Daytona 500 | Hagerty Media

[Hagerty]

Michael McDowell only led one lap of the 2021 Daytona 500. It was the only lap that mattered. As a pair of Penske teammates tangled while dueling for the lead on the last circuit, McDowell navigated his Love's Travel Stop Mustang through the fiery carnage and to the finish line, earning his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series win.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/underdog-michael-mcdowell-wins-the-2021-daytona-500/

[spoom]

"his team actually performed service too quickly, causing Hamlin to be too far ahead" which is why despite loving most any form of car race, I only watch the road courses and short tracks in NASCAR. It's just no fun watching two trains race, waiting for the eventual occurrence of one train to blow up and the other one to run into it.

[JimR]

I’m with you spoom. I appreciate anyone’s skill doing 200 mph but just not a big fan of oval track racing. 
The best description I ever heard was that there was a perfectly good Demolition Derby going on...and then a race broke out. 

[Billthecat707]

Happy to see Michael get his first win in Cup, and at the most important race of the year. Biggest smile I've seen in a while.. Well deserved,he's really put in the work for a mid pack team. The owner and crew looked as happy and amazed as he was. Congratulations on surviving another superspeedway wreck fest.

[OldRoad]

Sick and tired of watching train wrecks because "We got to slow these cars down". So lets mount The Great Wall of China on the deck lid and choke power out of the engine with "Tapered Spacers".
Would be nice to see a real race with real race cars and drivers that can power their way out of trouble instead of having to drown themselves in mayhem because they have nothing to save themselves with.

[spoom]

Agreed to some extent, but I think the tracks are more of a problem than the cars. NASCAR's gotta eventually admit the superspeedways were a mistake.   5000hp cars running at Bristol would be safer than 500hp ones at Daytona. Can't wait to see how the clay experiment goes at Bristol. 

[OldRoad]

I don't remember so many wrecks, not like the super speedway frequencies of wrecks we see now, when they were racing with 700 HP and shorter deck spoilers.