Richard Petty Motorsports Leaves World Center Of Racing Solid:
Aric Almirola was the most recent winner at Daytona International Speedway before Sunday’s Daytona 500, so rightfully, the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford team had a lot of eyes drawn upon them.
And even though Almirola couldn’t draft his way to his second career-win, Almirola still delivered a solid finish and some welcomed footing in his fifth Daytona 500 run.
Teammate Sam Hornish Jr. was extremely consistent in his full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series return Sunday.
While the second Richard Petty Motorsports couldn’t muscle his way into the lead, Hornish in his No. 9 Twisted Tea Ford Fusion was able to remain tucked in the lead draft the entire day, avoid the last lap carnage and deliver a 12th place finish in his RPM debut.
Though Hornish Jr. admits that his cautious approach ultimately affected his outcome in the race.
We were able to work our way up there at the midway point or three-quarter point of the race and we had a restart with about 50 to go where I had a run and just decided better of it,” Hornish said.
“That kind of hurt us for the whole rest of the race because we could never get to where we needed to be. Hats off to everybody at Richard Petty Motorsports for doing such a good job for me. I’m looking forward to keep(ing) going.”
Honorable mentions:
Martin Truex Jr. looked like his old Sunday afternoon. Despite a miserable season last year, the Furniture Row Racing driver was able to contend late for the win, but eventually fell to eighth in the shuffle.
Following a horrific accident in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series season opener at Daytona, Regan Smith had a productive day on the Sprint Cup Series side in a replacement role for the suspended Kurt Busch. Busch was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR Friday afternoon after the release of a supplemental disposition by the Family Court of the State of Delaware delineating the reasons for the court’s decision, announced Monday, to grant an order of protection to Busch’s former girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll.
While Smith didn’t contend for the win in Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 41 Chevrolet, Smith finished a solid 16th, the second best car of the Stewart-Haas Racing camp. A decision is expected this week on an interim driver of the No. 41 Chevrolet in time for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.
Matt Crafton did an exceptional job replacing the injured Kyle Busch at Daytona International Speedway Sunday afternoon. Despite all the adversity Crafton had to face, he excelled like a champion would. While the reins weren’t relinquished till the final run, Crafton made a run and found himself contending for a top-10 finish, ultimately to be denied when a crash erupted on the backstretch resulting in a 18th place finish.
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