DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Teeth chattering, hands shaking, stomach churning, Justin Haley anxiously waited for NASCAR to pull the plug on a rain-wrecked weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
A 500-1 long shot making just his third career Monster Energy Cup start, Haley won the rain-postponed, rain-shortened race at Daytona on Sunday. He inherited the lead after a 17-car accident decimated the field and a lightning strike forced NASCAR to stop the race.
Haley waited out the delay in a conference room inside the historical speedway, admittedly too nervous to do more than pray for the skies to open and the race to be called once and for all.
The wait of 2 hours, 12 minutes was well worth it for the 20-year-old Indiana native driving for first-year team Spire Motorsports. Team members celebrated in a makeshift indoor victory lane and were warmly greeted by manufacturer Chevrolet, which has now won two consecutive races after a miserable start to the season.
"I had no expectation to win this race," said Haley, admitting he'd have quickly been passed for the lead if the race resumed. "We were just trying to keep the fenders on it. That was the whole goal of the race, to finish with no scratches. Yes, I really did pray for rain."
The race was scheduled for Saturday night but forced to Sunday afternoon because of persistent rain and lightning that washed out most of this final Independence Day party at NASCAR's birthplace. The race is being moved next year to August as the regular-season finale.
As the clouds darkened over the track at the start of the third and final stage, drivers picked up the intensity and started racing as if the event would end at the first drop of rain.
Clint Bowyer pulled out of line and tried to pass Austin Dillon for the lead, but Dillon would not relinquish the spot. His Chevrolet wiggled, Bowyer hit him from behind in his Ford, and because they were at the front of the field, it caused a huge wreck.
"I guess he didn't want me to pass him," Bowyer said. "I got under him, and he blocked, and he just finally wrecked us all."
Dillon, a former Daytona 500 winner, defended his racing.
"I really thought it was kind of urgent because of the lightning and rain coming," he said. "It's part of this kind of racing. I was being aggressive and trying to keep the lead."
As he spoke, lightning crackled above his head, "and there's a lightning strike right there."
With that, NASCAR had to stop the race and bring the remaining cars to pit road as a safety precaution. The move came just minutes after Kurt Busch, who had slid through the accident to take the lead, made a quick pit stop.
Busch relinquished the lead because he thought the race was one lap away from resuming, and Xfinity Series regular Haley cycled into the lead. He was making his third Cup start for Spire, which started in NASCAR as an agency representing drivers and sponsors but last year purchased one of the charters Furniture Row Racing left behind when the team folded at the end of last season.
Team co-owners T.J. Puchyr and Jeff Dickerson took out a $6 million bank loan for the charter, hoping the value of it would repay the note while helping them transition into a true race team. They needed the huge accident, Busch's decision to pit and another heavy rainstorm to become winners in their 17th Cup race.
"It's obviously a huge, huge moment to win at the pinnacle of our sport, at Daytona no less. This is it," Puchyr said. "We just want to be in control of our own destiny. We've put a lot of money in a lot of people's pockets in this garage. There's a lot of people out there that think we're doing this as a cash grab the way the charter system works.
"Quite frankly, that's not true. Jeff Dickerson said, 'We believe in this sport. We believe in the platform that NASCAR provides.' This is the American dream. We did it early, and it's not lost on me that luck was on our side today.
"But I'm not going to feel bad about it at all. I'm going to love it. We're going to continue to be the 'Little Engine That Could' and build this thing as best we can and go from there."
Sports on 07/08/2019