With 48 laps remaing, Matt Kenseth was declared the winner of the 2009 Daytona 500 after a lengthy rain delay. This is the fourth Daytona 500 to end early due to weather.
For the local drivers I was following. Joplin native Jamie McMurry finished 37th down 13 laps. Columbia native and Sprint Cup runner-up Carl Edwards finished 18th picking up 109 points behind Kenseth’s 190.
This was Kenseth first Daytona win in 10 races. The bonehead driver of the race without a doubt is Dale Jr. Not only did he miss his pit box and need to loop around again, he stopped on his line on another pit stop and was docked a one minute penalty.
However, his wreck when he turned into Vickers knocking out race leader Kyle Busch was unbelievable. The drivers were saying Jason Leffler in the Nationwide series was penalized five laps for something similar, but not as harsh as what Junior pulled.
Junior is and always has been overrated. He got a lot of sympathy support after his father’s death and many fans rallied around Junior to continue the legacy. Those are big shoes to fill and Junior is proving as time goes on, he’s not the same driver his father was.
