By Aaron Bearden, Motorsports Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The 60th lap of the 60th-Annual Daytona 500 yielded one of the race’s signature features – The Big One.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was racing to the conclusion of the opening 60-lap stage of ‘The Great American Race’ when a backstretch stack-up led to a multi-car melee that eliminated a host of early contenders from the race.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was running second on the final lap of the stage when an attempt block of Ryan Blaney sent the Coke Zero 400 winner sailing up the race track.
The Mississippian was able to seize control of his No. 17 Ford just before he reached the outside wall, but the evasive remove it required of the trailing Erik Jones led the sophomore to spin down the track and into Kyle Larson, resulting a multi-car crash.
A wild battle for the stage win! #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/AJlmkDG3ZW
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 18, 2018
Jones, Daniel Suarez, Jimmie Johnson and Ty Dillon were eliminated in the incident. Also receiving damage in the incident were rookie William Byron and defending champion Martin Truex Jr..
“It looked like the 17 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) just got freed up there by the 12 (Ryan Blaney), unfortunately,” Jones said. “We tried to check up and everybody got stacked up, and caused a big wreck. It’s unfortunate because the DEWALT Camry was definitely fast – we just didn’t get to the end to see what we could really do.
The race continued a torrid Speedweeks for Johnson, in which the two-time Daytona 500 champion crashed out of every race he ran.
“There was some great racing throughout. But unfortunately, many thought it was the black and white checkered flag and not the green and white checkered flag,” Johnson said. “On lap 59 to be throwing blocks like that just…a lot of wrecked race cars.
“We will go to work and go to Atlanta next week. But it is disappointing for this Lowes team and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports for all the work they put into it.”
Leader Kurt Busch went on to win the stage, with Alex Bowman, Stenhouse, Blaney, Truex, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Larson and Paul Menard completing the top 10.