The 2010 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The 52nd Daytona 500, it was held on February 14, 2010, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway, before a crowd of about 175,000 attendees. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Jamie McMurray won the 208-lap race from 13th place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick Motorsports finished in second, and Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle was third.
Mark Martin, the event's oldest pole position winner at 51 years and 27 days, led the first four laps before Kasey Kahne passed him on lap five. Martin reclaimed the lead two laps later. The lead changed 52 times between a then-record-breaking 21 different drivers during the race, with Kevin Harvick leading the most laps (41). It was twice stopped because a large pothole developed between turns one and two, due to moisture, cold weather, and heavy cars scraping the tarmac surface as they ran low to the ground for better aerodynamic efficiency. Harvick led on the 206th lap, until McMurray passed him for his first Daytona 500 victory, and the fourth of his career.
Because this was the first race of the season, McMurray led the Drivers' Championship with 195 points, followed by Earnhardt in second place who had 175 points and Biffle in third with 170 points. Clint Bowyer and Harvick were fourth and fifth with 165 and 155 points, respectively. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet led with nine points, ahead of Ford with six points. Toyota with four points, and Dodge with three points with thirty-five races left in the season.
Background
The 2010 Daytona 500 was the 1st of the 36 stock car races in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the 52nd edition of the event. It was held on February 14, 2010, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway, The layout used for the Daytona 500 is a four-turn, superspeedway. Daytona's turns are banked at 31 degrees, and the front stretch—the location of the finish line—is banked at 18 degrees. A total of 54 cars from 30 different teams were entered for the race.
NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. conceived the Daytona 500, which was first held in 1959; it is the successor to shorter races held on beaches in Daytona Beach. The race has been the opening round of the NASCAR season since 1982, and from 1988, it is one of four events that require cars to run restrictor plates. The Daytona 500 offers the most prize money of any American auto race. Winning the race is considered equal to winning either the World Series, the Super Bowl or The Masters.
For the 2010 race, NASCAR announced that it would stop policing bump drafting after responding to a growing resentment from its fan-base and drivers about the lack of on-track aggression and emotion. It came as the organization gradually controlled, and ultimately outright prohibited, bump drafting at the 2009 AMP Energy 500. Furthermore, NASCAR kept the yellow-marked out-of-bounds line at the bottom of race circuits because drivers opposed its removal. Furthermore, the four restrictor plate opening were expanded to their greatest size since the 1989 Daytona 500 of 63/64-inches for greater horsepower. NASCAR's vice-president of competition Robin Pemberton said that the changes would give control back to the drivers, "'Boys, have at it' and have a good time." NASCAR later changed the green–white–checkered finish rule to allow for a maximum of three (not one) attempts to end the race if it would otherwise conclude under caution.
Following an investigation of the circuit's safety barriers and a collision that sent Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards into the catchfence at the 2009 Aaron's 499, track workers raised the height of the Daytona International Speedway catchfences from to . The cost was not stated, and the work was completed in mid-January 2010. An spokesperson for the track's owner and operator International Speedway Corporation said, "Whenever we have an incident that impacts any of our systems, we take that opportunity to more closely scrutinize it and look at it across the company. Whatever we learn in these analyses, we'll look and see where it can be applied to other tracks. The challenge is each track is different in terms of banking and speed, so our primary focus right now was on Talladega and Daytona."
Practice and qualifier
Six practice sessions were scheduled before the race on February 14. The first two, on February 5, were scheduled to run 80 and 90 minutes, respectively. The next two, on February 10, lasted 90 and 50 minutes, respectively. A steady day-long rain shower cancelled the February 12 60-minute session. The final session on February 13 lasted 85 minutes. Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the first practice session on Friday, February 5, which was truncated to an hour due to a thunderstorm from Central Florida, with a lap of 47.770 seconds, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon in second and third. Bill Elliott, Robby Gordon, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, Kyle Busch, and Clint Bowyer made up positions four through ten. NASCAR moved the second practice session to Saturday to provide eight drivers who did not set a lap time with some on-track running. David Gilliland led the session with a 48.072-second lap, ahead of Jeff Fuller, Terry Cook, and Derrike Cope.
On February 6, 54 vehicles competed in the qualifier for one of the 43 starting spots in the Daytona 500. Each driver ran two laps, and unlike most races during the season, the qualifying session determined the first two positions. The rest of the field would qualify later, through the 2010 Gatorade Duels. Qualifying was held a day early to avoid clashing with Super Bowl XLIV, which was moved forward one week by the National Football League. Friday's rain-out gave drivers little on-track preparation. Martin took his first Daytona 500 pole position, and the 49th of his career, with a lap of 47.074 seconds. At 51 years and 27 days, he was oldest pole position winner in race history. Martin was joined on the grid's front row by Earnhardt. After qualifying, Martin said it was "really special" to begin the year on pole position, and felt Earnhardt would challenge for the win.
Matt Kenseth led the third practice session on February 10 with a 46.331-second lap, followed by Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Edwards, Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Reutimann, Kevin Harvick, and Joey Logano. Bowyer slid sideways into an outside barrier after his right-rear tire blew leaving turn two. Reutimann was close by, and hit the rear of Bowyer's car. Reutimann's rear, in turn, was struck by Cope's slowing car. Marcos Ambrose led the fourth practice session later that day with a 46.535-second lap, with Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Logano, Kahne, Kenseth, Paul Menard, Greg Biffle, Elliott Sadler, and Edwards following in the top ten. Early in the session, Hamlin bumped Earnhardt at , who controlled his car through a slide and continued. One of Vickers' tires failed exiting turn two three minutes later, and he spun through grass on the backstretch with minimal structural damage. Just after green flag running resumed, Mike Bliss oversteered on the inside exiting the fourth turn, and rammed into Logano. As the rest of the field steered away, Johnson hit the back of Hamlin's car. Johnson stopped on pit road with an orange traffic cone lodged underneath his splitter. Michael Waltrip was hit by another car and went through grass. Due to the various crashes, Bowyer, Reutimann, Cope, Bliss, Johnson, and Logano would switch into their back-up cars for the Gatorade Duels.
Johnson and Kahne won the Gatorade Duels on February 11. The starting grid was finalized with Johnson, Kahne, Harvick, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, Bowyer, and Kurt Busch completing the top ten. The 11 drivers that failed to qualify were Casey Mears, Todd Bodine, Gilliland, Cook, Cope, Aric Almirola, Dave Blaney, Sorenson, Mike Wallace, Norm Benning, and Fuller. Jeff Gordon switched to a back-up car for the race after being involved in a three-car accident. In the final practice session, held in cold and cloudy weather on February 13, Burton led with a 46.108-second lap, ahead of Harvick, Ambrose, Reutimann, and Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Sam Hornish Jr., Regan Smith, Montoya, and Hamlin. 15 minutes in, Bobby Labonte was hit by Scott Speed and sent towards a left-hand wall at , but narrowly avoided hitting it. Smoke billowed from A. J. Allmendinger's engine compartment, and his team changed engines after the session.
Qualifying results