Daytona Speedweeks: The Year of the Unknown and Downright Insane

I have been watching NASCAR since the 2005 Busch (now Nationwide) Series race at Talladega Superspeedway and this past week's Daytona Speedweeks were the most crazy week of racing I have seen in my life, and rivals some of the craziest events I have seen in sports period.

So let's recap it!

Saturday, February 18 (seems forever ago): Brandon McReynolds runs out of gas off of Turn 4 on the final lap and Bobby Gerhart wins the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 AGAIN.

Later that night: Kyle Busch nearly wrecks twice and somehow wins the Budweiser Shootout.

Ok, we all know Kyle Busch is one of the most aggressive drivers in NASCAR history. We also know he is about a good of a finesse driver as there is. But what he pulled off on this night left even the most hard to impress person saying "Damn, How in the hell did he do that?!"

After all that, the kid from Las Vegas (ironic enough) does this...

Friday Night: John King wins the Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250.

Ok, if Friday afternoon you asked me who would win this race, I would put out names like Jason Leffler, Todd Bodine, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Tim Peters, even Jason White. But what transpired in the wreck-fest that ensued had even the winner stunned...

John King (I still don't know who he is and can't find much about him) wins the race in his 8th Truck Series start.

Saturday Afternoon: James Buescher wins the Nationwide Series Drive 4 COPD 300.

Tony Stewart has dominated this event. In fact he has only lost 1 Daytona NNS February race since I have started watching. Didn't matter if it was for JGR or Hendrick, Childress or Dale Jr., the man won in just about everything he's been in at Daytona (excluding the 500 of course). And coming off Turn 4 on the final lap, he was about to make it another win. Then all hell broke loose.

Ok, talk about twist of fate in less than 24 hours. That last wreck in the Truck that sent Joey Coulter into the catchfence started when James Buescher got turned into Coulter. Then he gets left out to dry on the final restart in the NNS race and is 11th, by himself going into Turn 4. Wouldn't you know that the entire top 10 gets wiped out in a wreck and Buescher gets his first NASCAR win.

Then the grand finale of Speedweeks came on Sunday Afternoon...

Ok, the grand finale of Speedweeks came on Monday Afternoon...

Ok, can anyone say "Are you ready for some racing?!" Monday Night NASCAR it is! Unfortunately, we didn't make it 3 miles before we saw yellow.

Ok, for those of you who wondered, Dave Blaney (who was the leader of the 500 under caution) did not pay off Juan Pablo Montoya to do this...

And 5 days later, even though he couldn't be anymore in the throttle than he already was, I'm still heartbroken that my driver (Greg Biffle) was 2nd on the final lap of the Daytona 500 didn't win. Instead a repeat driver did it again...

Biffle's teammate, Matt Kenseth, wins his second Daytona 500 in four years.

Off to Phoenix, where Tony Stewart, Mark Martin and Greg Biffle are the favorites in the Subway Fresh Fit 500 Sunday.