DAYTONA BEACH — Daytona under water Sunday. Daytona on fire Monday.
Fire and rain, bringing chaos to the 54th running of the Daytona 500.
For 24 hours, a steady drizzle prevented the field of 43 cars from revving up and going for a ride.
And then, in a flash Monday night, Juan Pablo Montoya slammed into a service vehicle, and the Daytona International Speedway went up in flames.
Only 40 laps remained, with 29 drivers on the lead lap, when Montoya lost control of his car after a caution flag came out. He avoided the first jet dryer, but slid up and into the second dryer — full of jet fuel — along turn three.
Two-hundred gallons of jet fuel, breathing fire into a night that already had ignited in chaos from the get-go.
The race was red flagged while workers tried to put out the rush of flames. It took a while: two hours, five minutes, 29 seconds.
Finally, mercifully, Matt Kenseth won the race — perhaps with a little blocking help by Roush teammate Greg Biffle — who kept Dale Earnhardt Jr. at bay. At least that's what to looked like. Biffle said he was going for it and couldn't get to Kenseth in time.
A two-lap sprint finish to a three-day marathon. A race that was supposed to start on Sunday, got pushed to Monday, and finally finished on Tuesday. The Rolex 24 at Daytona, a warm-up act to the Daytona 36.
Kenseth, who lost radio contact with his team during the race, became a two-time Daytona 500 winner.
" I'd like to have won. ... I waited until the last minute for him to pass Matt but nothing happened," Earnhardt said.
Said Kenseth: "I have to thank Greg. We worked together really good all day long. He had a really fast car all day as well."
"We needed a gap between us on the 17 [Kenseth]," Biffle said. "It wasn't meant to be."
By day or by night, the Daytona 500 always seems to come down to a sophisticated game of rock, paper, scissors.
Or, as Brad Keselowski said a few days ago, "We'll see who wins the lottery."
Eventually, Keselowski went bump in the night too, although he became a Twitter sensation after sending out a picture of the track in flames with a cell phone he had in his car.
Attrition is always arbitrary here. Two laps into the first official evening race in Daytona 500 history, Elliott Sadler must have suffered night blindness: He smashed into Jimmie Johnson, causing a chaotic chain-reaction that took out Johnson, Kurt Busch, defending Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne and Danica Patrick.
Talk about a NASCAR serial killer.
Sadler was the ultimate buzz-kill on a night where NASCAR's signature race had already turned into an endless commercial for NoDoz, 5-Hour Energy, double-cappuccinos from Starbucks, anything that keeps you up and running.
We waited. We waited some more.
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