The 2012 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The 54th iteration of the event, it was held between February 27 and 28, 2012 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, before a crowd of 140,000. Matt Kenseth driving for Roush Fenway Racing took the 202-lap race for his first win of the season and his second Daytona 500 victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Greg Biffle was third.
The race was scheduled for February 26 but heavy rain forced NASCAR officials to delay it until February 27 at 7:02 p.m. EST. Carl Edwards, who won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, was immediately passed by Biffle before the first turn. Biffle maintained this position until he was passed by Regan Smith on lap eleven. Denny Hamlin took over the lead after a second caution period and led the race for 57 laps, during which Biffle also led. Matt Kenseth assumed the first place on lap 146 and maintained it until a seventh caution period twelve laps later. The race was stopped for two hours and five minutes after Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer on lap 160, causing fuel to seep onto the track and catch fire. Kenseth regained the first position just before the lap 166 restart, and maintained it for the last thirty-eight laps to win the race.
The race had ten cautions and saw twenty-five lead changes by ten different drivers. The result gave Kenseth the Drivers' Championship lead with 47 points, five ahead of Earnhardt, Biffle, and Hamlin. Jeff Burton followed in fifth on 41 points. Ford led the Manufacturers' Championship with nine points, three ahead of Chevrolet in second. Toyota was third with four, and Dodge was fourth. The race attracted on average 13.69 million television viewers, with 36.5 million watching part or all of the race, making it the second most-watched 500 in history.
Background
The 2012 Daytona 500 was the first of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the 54th edition of the event. It was scheduled to be held on February 27, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway, a superspeedway that holds NASCAR races. 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. Trevor Bayne was the race's defending winner.
The Daytona 500 was conceived by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who owned the Daytona International Speedway. The race was first held in 1959; it is the successor to shorter races held on beaches around Daytona Beach, Florida. The race has been the opening round of the NASCAR season since 1982. From 1988 it was one of four events that require cars to run restrictor plates; alongside the summer Daytona race and the two races at Talladega Superspeedway. The Daytona 500 offers the most prize money of any auto race held in the United States.
On February 20, 2011, NASCAR's vice president of operations Steve O'Donnell announced that the 2012 Daytona 500 would be moved from its traditional Presidents' Day weekend slot to the final Sunday of February. The decision was based on the possibility of an extended National Football League schedule; the Daytona 500 was moved to avoid a potential clash with the Super Bowl. This shortened the NASCAR season by one week; the company planned to maintain momentum during the early part of the year.
After the two-car style draft—also called tandem racing—dominated races held on restrictor plate tracks during 2011, NASCAR reduced the size of the radiators from five liters to two and the air intakes were moved towards the cars' fascia section. The size of the restrictor plate was reduced by and the cars were required to run with softer springs and a smaller rear spoiler. These changes were intended to reduce the effectiveness of two-car style drafting and to make the cars more challenging to turn. Sprint Cup Series director John Darby stated, "We want to be able to give the teams more options when it comes to drafting and we want to be able to reduce the difference in the speeds between the tandem style of racing and more of the pack style of racing that the fans are accustomed to seeing".
In preparation for the race and to test the new car package, NASCAR held several test sessions on January 12–14, 2012. Test sessions began at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) (UTC–05:00), and were paused at midday for a lunch break. They then resumed at 1:00 pm. EST, before concluding at 5:00 pm. 31 drivers participated in the first session on the morning of January 12; Jeff Gordon was quickest with a speed of , while Kyle Busch had the highest speed of during the second session in the afternoon. At the end of the second session, NASCAR announced that the opening of the restrictor plate would be increased by to be wide and the pressure release valve settings were reduced from to .
On the second day, NASCAR allowed drivers to draft in packs to check the cars' responses. During the third session on the morning of January 13, in which 32 drivers took part, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer were both quickest with a speed of , and Kurt Busch recorded the fastest speed of in the fourth session held in the afternoon. Ryan Newman and Casey Mears decided to leave after the session. During the fifth session, held on the morning on January 14, 30 drivers took part; Kasey Kahne and Gordon were both quickest with a speed of . After the session, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. left the circuit and NASCAR increased the pressure value from to . Gordon was fastest in the sixth and final session held in the afternoon, with a speed of .
During the 2012 Budweiser Shootout, some of the cars' engines overheated while driving in packs; NASCAR increased the engines' pressure release values from to to help reduce overheating and alleviate the effects of driving at high temperatures.
Practice and qualification
There were seven practice sessions held before the race. The first two were held on February 18 and ran for 120 and 105 minutes each. The next two on February 22 were shortened to 90 minutes each. Two days later, two more practice sessions were scheduled, which both ran for 60 minutes. The final practice session was held on February 25 and lasted 60 minutes. Greg Biffle lapped fastest at 46.537 seconds in the first session, 0.011 seconds quicker than Marcos Ambrose. Jeff Gordon, Bayne, Paul Menard, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Aric Almirola and Carl Edwards rounded out the session's top ten drivers. In the second practice session, Biffle remained fastest with a time of 46.574 seconds, followed by Bayne, Truex, Stewart and Mark Martin, Menard, Edwards, Ambrose, Gordon and A. J. Allmendinger.
There were forty-nine cars entered in the qualifier, NASCAR's qualifying procedure permitted forty-three to race. Each driver ran two laps, and unlike most races during the season, the qualifying session determined the first two positions, while the rest of the drivers qualified by the 2012 Gatorade Duels. Edwards clinched his eleventh pole position of his career, his first in the Daytona 500, with a time of 46.216 seconds. The time was the fastest recorded average speed since Jeff Gordon's pole lap in the 1999 race. He was joined on the front row of the grid by teammate Biffle. It was the first time since the 2007 race that Ford cars had the top two starting positions. Bowyer who recorded the 22nd fastest time, had his car twice fail the post-race inspection for height sticks and was required to start at the rear of the field in the second Gatorade Duel race. After the qualifier, Edwards commented, "It's huge to start this year for us and this company with the run today. This is the result of a lot of hard work this offseason and we are now ready to focus on how to win this Daytona 500."
Kenseth led the third practice session, with a time of 44.809 seconds. Bayne, Stenhouse, Ambrose, Martin, Bowyer, Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick, Menard, and Kahne followed in the top ten. Brad Keselowski slowed to avoid Newman which caused Bowyer to turn into Keselowski, sending him spinning into the grass on the backstretch. Keselowski's car had sustained minor damage which meant he was not required to use his back-up car as mechanics were able to repair the damage. Almirola led fourth practice (where twenty-five drivers took part) with a lap of 45.065 seconds, nearly one-tenth of a second faster than David Stremme. David Ragan was third ahead of Robert Richardson Jr. and Biffle. During the session (where drivers ran in packs and drafted off each other), Juan Pablo Montoya made contact with Kahne, who was sent spinning into the grass on the frontstretch which caused parts of his car's nose to be torn off. Kahne was required to use his back-up car for the rest of Speedweeks.
Stewart and Kenseth were the winners of the Gatorade Duels. The qualifying grid was finalized with Stewart in third and Kenseth in fourth. Earnhardt, Regan Smith, Ambrose, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton and Elliott Sadler completed the top ten. The six drivers that failed to qualify were Michael Waltrip, Richardson, Bill Elliott, Mike Wallace, Kenny Wallace and J. J. Yeley. After the duels, Patrick, David Gilliland, Montoya and Menard went to back-up cars because they were involved in wrecks during the first duel.
Edwards was fastest in fifth practice with a 45.301 seconds lap, one-thousand of a second in front of Almirola. Ambrose was third quickest, ahead of Montoya and Biffle. Kahne and Gordon were sixth and seventh quickest, within one second of Edwards' time. Kyle Busch (with a time of 45.026) led the sixth session ahead of Joey Logano who set an identical time to Kyle Busch. Kurt Busch had the third-fastest time. Denny Hamlin was next ahead of Stewart. Truex, Stenhouse, Allmendinger, Kesleowski and Gordon followed in the top ten. Gilliland's lap of 44.969 seconds topped the final practice session (where thirty-seven drivers participated), followed by Bayne, Stenhouse, Almirola, and Jeff Gordon in the top five positions. During the final practice session, Kurt Busch hit a bird which tore a small hole in the bottom of his radiator causing water to be drained from his car. He changed his car's engine because the damage could not be repaired.
Qualifying results