The 2023 Daytona 500 ended after a last-lap crash ended the race under caution, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. emerging as the winner following two overtimes. However, the strange circumstances that led to an anti-climactic finish left a lot of people wondering what happened. And for some drivers, like Kyle Busch, there was downright disgust over how it all went down.
Busch was the race leader with three laps remaining when the caution went into place following Daniel Suarez’s spinning. Busch was heard on the radio saying that in 1998, he would have been declared the winner because there was no such thing as overtime.
However, instead of being automatically named the winner, as Dale Earnhardt had been in under similar circumstances when he won the Daytona 500, he ended up finishing 19th when he was involved in a crash during the second overtime.
Naturally, none of this sat well with Busch.
“I think this is the first time I led lap 200, so I wish it was 1998 rules. But, no, it’s just par for the course, just used to it and come down here every year to just find out when and where I’m going to crash and what lap I come out of the care center,” Busch said afterward.
“Who won? I don’t even know who lucked into it,” Busch asked.
When told Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won, Busch said “there you have it.”
Busch, who is in his first year with Richard Childress Racing, was considered a solid pick to win the Daytona 500, but as things tend to happen, that didn’t work out in the end. Coincidentally, it’s also the second time that Suarez inadvertently cost Busch a win last week, having caused him to hit the wall during Duel 2 on Thursday.
[Noah Lewis, LBS]