DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – After some stout restrictor plate performances last season for Hillman-Smith Racing, Landon Cassill’s bid to hoist the Harley J. Earl trophy was tarnished just 19 laps into Sunday’s Daytona 500.
“Ah, it was sudden. Just a typical engine failure where you never see it coming,” said Cassill. “Really unfortunate for my team because we really worked hard on this car and for this race. The most important thing is that we raced our way into the Daytona 500 and we would have liked to have scored a few more points than what we are going to end up scoring today. We have a long season ahead of us and we are going to work hard to gain these points back.”
Cassill started 17th after his ninth place finish in Thursday’s Budweiser Duel at Daytona and raced competitively inside the top-15, but when the field roared on the backstretch on Lap 19,
Cassill’s motor seized, briefly igniting a fire.
After stopping his car, Cassill climbed from his No. 40 CarsForSale.com Chevrolet uninjured, but understandably dejected. He was later evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Cassill drafted owner Mike Hillman’s team to a noteworthy 12th place finish in last year’s Daytona 500, rightfully earning the praises of his peers and race fans alike.
In May, Cassill finished 11th at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. In his return to Daytona in July, Cassill finished 31st after starting third, before rebounding to a career-best Sprint Cup Series finish of fourth at Talladega’s 2.66-mile oval last October.
With their underdog performances on the superspeedway track last year, the Cedar Rapids Iowa native was eagerly looking forward to a good finish in “The Great American Race”, especially after a rough outing in Saturday afternoon’s XFINITY Series opener.
Cassill’s primary car was destroyed as he became a victim in a multi-car incident in the tri-oval. After starting 39th, the 26-year old struggled and finished 31st.
Cassill was the first retiree in NASCAR’s Super Bowl race, finishing 43rd.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
