Monday December 13th 'What If' Question

The Daytona 500 is both the season-opening race and one of the biggest races of the NASCAR season. A driver's name lives on in the history book for infamy, there face becomes engraved on the Harley J. Earl trophy for life and their winning car sits in Daytona USA for an entire year.

No matter what happens for the rest of the season or even their career, the driver who wins the Daytona 500 can't have it taken away from them. They can say they won the Daytona 500. It's that big of a race and that big of a weekend and it's not good when something goes wrong as the entire world is watching.

The 2010 Daytona 500 decided to shake everything up.

Things started off without a hitch but then things started to get a little bumpy inbetween turns one and two. On lap 122 of 200 as Clint Bowyer led, NASCAR brought the red flag out and had the drivers come and park on pit road because a pothole had formed on the track. Crews quickly got to work to repair the hole so the race could finish its listed distance even though it was already an official race.

After an hour and 45 minutes of repairs the race restarted.

But on lap 159 the red flag came out again, this time with Kevin Harvick leading, because the pothole had formed again. NASCAR officials again went to work, determined to finish the race. An hour later the race was restarted again and would go to it's conclusion but not without two green-white-checkered finishes that saw Jamie McMurray take the lead on the last lap and Dale Earnhardt Jr. charge to second.

McMurray won his first Daytona 500 in his reunion with Chip Ganassi while Earnhardt Jr. finished an exciting second.

But ...

What if Daytona 500 was run straight through (no red flags/pot holes). Would it still have had dramatic ending/Jamie McMurray win?

@TJIngerson Daytona 500 should end under lights, and no pothole means it wouldn't have had that great ending

@NASCARJeannie yes I believe it would have had the same outcome just maybe not as dramatic.

@mwoodruff8829 No because Kevin Harvick had the most dominating car that day and he would had won it ether way pothole or not.

@cruetten yes. Both Daytona and Talladega have had mostly dramatic finishes lately, regardless of race circumstances.

@garrettu88 doubt it very much

@MattEmbury Dramatic ending yeah, maybe a different winner...probably Harvick.