By Tim Packman
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It took three Green-White-Checkered attempts, several multi-car wrecks and one beat-up Toyota going to Victory Lane before the Busch Clash finally concluded at Daytona International Speedway.
Erik Jones was one of six remaining cars on the lead lap. And, despite a heavily-damaged front end on his No. 20 Toyota, he was still competitive. On the final lap, he used a push from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to earn the win.
“I was hoping I could get by the No. 6 (Ryan Newman) on the last restart and then get Denny to help us,” Jones said. “That didn’t exactly work out because everyone was slicing with that many team cars.
VIDEO: @KicknTheTires post-race celebration from the @JoeGibbsRacing 20 team on pit road at @DISupdates #TheClash #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/oO3wObJnhD
— Jerry Jordan (@JerryJordan_KTT) February 9, 2020
“My car was dragging so bad that we weren’t able to get connected to anyone. But, Denny got to us and pushed us home. It feels good starting the season off with a win.”
Earlier in the race, Jones slid through his pit box and received a pass-through penalty. As a result, he raced the next 23 circuits one lap down. After getting his lap back from a caution, he was involved in a wreck that pushed in the car’s front end.
The JGR crew leaped into action, bear bonded the hood down and hoped for the best for the rest of the race. It worked as Jones led only one lap, the important one, and took home the 42nd Busch Clash trophy.
Rounding out the top-five finishers were Austin Dillon second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse and Ryan Newman.
The first 25 laps of the race, which is when a pre-determined caution waved, were pretty uneventful. So much to the point, the field of 18 cars actually split up into two parts as drivers bided their time.
When the restarted after that caution, it left 45 laps to go for the win. The action went back to single-file style until 13 to go when they started to double up.
And, that’s when the mechanized mayhem started.
Three-consecutive cautions slowed the pace of the race and dragged it out making for the longest Busch Clash in history. Joey Logano and Kyle Busch made contact, Busch got tagged in the back by Jimmie Johnson while Busch was trying to gather his car under him. Busch hit Logano, who in turn hit Brad Keselowski triggering a wreck.
On the ensuing restart, Ryan Newman spun his tires and William Bryon slowed up behind him to avoid making contact. Unfortunately, the car behind him didn’t and a multi-track wreck occurred in the grandstand.
VIDEO: Check out the @KicknTheTires video of the Big #BuschClashCrash at @DISupdates #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/lV2rscbjrf
— Jerry Jordan (@JerryJordan_KTT) February 10, 2020
Cars spun to the infield grass and a few into the outside wall. So many cars were damaged it seemed every wrecker at the track was called to action. Because the field did not take the white flag, overtime was extended allowing the race to finish under green.
When that finally did happen, the crazy finish with Jones’ damaged car being pushed to victory by Hamlin’s damaged car took place.