The 2017 Daytona 500 was a wreck-fest that involved 35 of the 40 cars on the grid in accidents. Through the debris and rubber left on the track, one victor emerged past the checkered flag first: Kurt Busch. Driving the #41 car of Stewart-Haas Racing, the elder of the Busch brothers had finally won the event after 16 attempts. It is without question that he inspired a whole lot of drivers with the resilience that he showed in that race. One among them is Ryan Vargas, a Craftsman Truck Series part-timer.
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Responding to a post on social media about drivers who didn’t let a spin/crash stop their victory, Vargas pitched Kurt Busch’s Daytona 500 win forward and termed it a ‘legendary performance.’
Vargas wrote, “Straight up was in the big one, played his cards right and won the dang 500.@KurtBusch put on a LEGENDARY performance that day.”
Straight up was in the big one, played his cards right and won the dang 500.@KurtBusch put on a LEGENDARY performance that day. https://t.co/uypHkpj5CS pic.twitter.com/7YXjApawFZ
— Ryan Vargas (@RyanVargas_23) December 24, 2023
The destruction that the 200-lap race at Daytona saw was something that cannot be explained with words. Many of the grid’s fastest exited very early, 15 drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Brad Keselowski never saw the finish line that day. Kurt Busch himself barely managed to keep his car in the contest, remarking after the race that his racecar was “completely thrashed.”
As remarkable as the win was, he led just one lap in it. The chaos that ensued over the stages ensured that laps led did not matter as long as you managed to drive past the mayhem and Kurt Busch did just that.
The importance of the Daytona 500 victory in Kurt Busch’s career
Kurt Busch’s career was filled with various ups and downs. The first half of his career was marred with off-track incidents that led to him being fired from the camps of Roush Fenway Racing and Team Penske. When all seemed ended for him around the 2011 season after Penske released him, he bounced back once again to drive another day.
But finding a place in Stewart-Haas Racing alone did not give him enough to prove that he was still the driver who won the 2004 Cup Series Championship.
He had just 4 wins for SHR in 105 appearances and the Daytona 500’s reputation as a NASCAR crown jewel event meant Busch had yet another golden opportunity to prove his caliber. When he did turn up victor, he became the first to win the event by leading just a single lap and it was only the 10th time in 59 years that the winner on a final-lap pass.
With its place in history, Kurt Busch’s Daytona 500 win could very well be a case study for young NASCAR drivers.
