Trevor Bayne gets the money for winning Daytona 500, but not the points
Despite winning the Daytona 500 and its $1.5 million in prize money in only his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, Trevor Bayne technically isn’t a rookie in the series because he’s committed to running this year in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.
So Carl Edwards, who finished second to Bayne on Sunday, took the early lead in the Cup championship standings under NASCAR’s new points system.
Edwards left Daytona with 42 points and a one-point lead over David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte, who finished third and fourth, respectively.
NASCAR now awards 43 points to the winner, 42 for second and so forth in one-point increments down to a single point for 43rd, or last place in a race. Drivers also get one bonus point for leading a lap, which Labonte did, so he matched the 41 points earned by Gilliland.
Jimmie Johnson, who has won the title for the last five years, earned 17 points after being caught in an multi-car crash that could have knocked him out of the race. But he returned to the track after lengthy repairs and finished 27th.
“The way the [new] scale works, every position we picked up there will help,” he said.
Childress woes
Richard Childress Racing’s four Chevrolets were among the favorites Sunday, but the two driven by Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton suffered blown engines.
“A tough way to start the year,” said Harvick, who finished 42nd. “We never blow motors.”
Burton, who finished 36th, said he was “exceptionally disappointed” and that while “we are asking a lot out of the engines,” it was still “a little early to know” what caused the failures.
Daytona shift
Next year’s Daytona 500 is scheduled a week later than normal, on Feb. 26, partly because NASCAR and the speedway don’t want the race to conflict with the Super Bowl in the event the NFL football season is extended.
The two-week break between the season’s third race in Las Vegas and the fourth in Bristol, Tenn., would be reduced to one week.
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