"DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Michael Jordan now owns another ring. Thanks to a buzzer-beater move every bit as stunning as a long-range NBA Finals dagger against the Utah Jazz or a Cleveland Cavaliers killer, Tyler Reddick swerved his No. 45 Toyota -- co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin -- through crashing traffic as if he were deking Craig Ehlo to stroke a game winner. The biggest game that stock car racing has to offer, the Daytona 500."
"The race itself was a near-perfect representation of what the Daytona 500 has become in recent years. A legendary speedway and its signature event, built largely around the idea of speed since 1959, for now at least has become a chess game of saving fuel and tires. That's not a new approach to the 500, but it has never been this widely prevalent for this long. It was a philosophy more utilized on short tracks and road courses. Preservation of equipment and body, timetable plans drawn up on laptops in the pits, with the goal of being near the front late so that the drivers can finally unleash their own plan of attack when the "laps to go" counter finally reaches single digits."
Tyler Reddick claimed the Daytona 500 after a last-moment maneuver through crashing traffic in the No. 45 Toyota co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. Reddick described being intensely focused and credited lessons about positioning from his team. The race exemplified a growing trend toward fuel and tire preservation, transforming long events into decisive sprints in the final laps. Teams prioritized equipment conservation, timing strategies and pit planning, relying on laptops and strategic patience to be well positioned for a late push. Reddick's dirt-track background and sprint-racing instincts proved decisive in the high-pressure finish.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]