Waltrip emotional after Trucks victory

— Michael Waltrip won at Daytona on the 10-year anniversary of his first victory, the one marred by the death of Dale Earnhardt.

Waltrip passed Elliott Sadler in the final hundredyards of the season-opening trucks series race Friday night, then celebrated an emotional victory a decade after his car owner died on the last lap of the Daytona500.

Waltrip had tears in his eyes as he talked about what the victory meant. He also became the 22nd driver to win races in each of NASCAR’s top three series.

This one was special.

“This day was hard,” Waltrip said. “I’ve been emotional all day long.”

Sadler, Waltrip, Timothy Peters, Miquel Paludo and Clay Rogers were the only ones who avoided major damage in two multitruck wrecks late. Sadlerand Waltrip pulled away from the field after the green flag dropped on a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag.

Waltrip pushed Sadler most of the way, then veered outside coming out of the final turn and edged Sadler by a few feet at the line.

“If anybody deserves a win in today’s race, it’s probably Michael Waltrip,” Sadler said.

The final pileup seemingly started when Aric Almirola ran into the back of Brad Sweet with four laps remaining, setting off a chain reaction that collected many of the night’sfastest trucks. Officials stopped the race for 10 minutes to clean up debris from the 10-truck crash near the start-finish line.

Most of the trucks remaining had significant damage.

Not Sadler and Waltrip, two longtime Sprint Cup drivers who have more success at restrictor-plate races than anywhere else.

Waltrip talked openly with broadcasters, including his brother, Darrell, about his strategy of staying behind Sadler until the final turn and then racing him to the finish line.

It worked to perfection.

“He made a great move at the end,” Sadler said. “It does ease the pain in the end.”

Rogers finished third, followed by Paludo, Kyle Busch and Jennifer Jo Cobb.

Waltrip took a celebratory lap before driving his No. 15 Toyota to Victory Lane. He climbed out of his car, embraced his daughter and then tried to explain what winning 10 years to the day of his first Cup victory meant. It was a struggle.

Waltrip’s truck had a broken rear spoiler, which could havehelped him slice through the air at the superspeedway. But Sadler said Waltrip still would have beat him.

“I think he still would have won anyway,” Sadler said. “He made a really good move off of turn four. ... Might have been a little bit closer to the line, but he had a lot of momentum. That’s not the reason why. It definitely helped some.”

The 103-lap race had very few cautions, but two big ones. Fourteen trucks were caught up in an accident with 26 laps remaining.

Travis Kvapil slowed up because of a flat tire as he drove through turn one, slid to the top of the track and got turned sideways by two-time series champion Todd Bodine. Kvapil slammed into the wall and started collecting trucks in the mess.

Four-time series champ Ron Hornaday, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Jason White, Brendan Gaughan, Max Papis and six others sustained damage.

Papis stayed in the race and caused another crash shortly after the restart. Papis ran into the back of Justin Lofton, who then sideswiped David Starr.

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS NextEra Energy Resources 250At Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Fla.

Lap length: 2.5 miles (Start position in parentheses) 1. (11) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 103 laps, 47 points.

2. (6) Elliott Sadler, Chevrolet, 103, 43.

3. (19) Clay Rogers, Chevrolet, 103, 42.

4. (14) Miguel Paludo, Toyota, 103, 40.

5. (21) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 103, 39.

6. (31) Jennifer Jo Cobb, Ford, 103, 38.

7. (23) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 103, 37.

8. (4) Ricky Carmichael, Chevrolet, 103, 37.

9. (2) James Buescher, Chevrolet, 103, 37.

10. (7) Matt Crafton, Chevrolet, 103, 34.

11. (18) Timothy Peters, Toyota, 103, 34.

12. (36) Max Papis, Toyota, 103, 32.

13. (25) David Starr, Toyota, 103, 31.

14. (33) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 103, 30.

15. (13) Parker Kligerman, Dodge, 103, 29.

16. (28) Craig Goess, Toyota, 102, 28.

17. (9) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 101, 27.

18. (17) Justin Lofton, Toyota, 98, 53.2, 26.

19. (16) C. Fontaine, Toyota, accident, 96, 25.

20. (1) A. Dillon, Chevrolet, accident, 96, 24.

21. (10) B. Sweet, Chevrolet, accident, 96, 23.

22. (34) A. Almirola, Toyota, accident, 96, 22.

23. (15) T. Bodine, Toyota, accident, 96, 21.

24. (30) Justin Marks, Chevrolet, 96, 20.

25. (29) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, battery, 91, 19.

26. (26) Brendan Gaughan, Toyota, 90, 18.

27. (35) N. Piquet, Chevrolet, engine, 80, 17.

28. (3) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 79, 16.

29. (24) Tr. Kvapil, Toyota, accident, 747, 15.

30. (12) J. White, Chevrolet, accident, 74, 14.

31. (22) T.J. Bell, Chevrolet, accident, 74, 13.

32. (5) J. Long, Toyota, accident, 74, 12.

33. (27) Neuenberger, Chevy, accident, 70, 11.

34. (8) Joey Coulter, Chevrolet, 65, 10.

35. (20) Chad McCumbee, Ford, clutch, 24, 9.

36. (32) Norm Benning, Chevrolet, engine, 22, 8.

RACE STATISTICS

AVERAGE SPEED OF RACE WINNER 130.025

mph.

TIME OF RACE 1 hour, 58 minutes, 33 sec

onds.

MARGIN OF VICTORY 0.061 seconds.

CAUTION FLAGS 6 for 24 laps.

LEAD CHANGES 6 among 7 drivers.

LAP LEADERS J.Buescher 1-55; T.Peters 56-67;

C.Rogers 68-69; R.Carmichael 70; E.Sadler 71-

102; M.Waltrip 103.

LEADERS SUMMARY (DRIVER, TIMES LED,

LAPS LED) J.Buescher, 1 time for 55 laps;

E.Sadler, 1 time for 32 laps; T.Peters, 1 time for

12 laps; C.Rogers, 1 time for 2 laps; M.Waltrip, 1

time for 1 lap; R.Carmichael, 1 time for 1 lap.

TOP 10 IN POINTS 1. C.Rogers, 42; 2. M.Paludo,

40; 3. J.Earnhardt, 37; 4. R.Carmichael, 37; 5.

J.Buescher, 37; 6. M.Crafton, 34; 7. T.Peters, 34;

8. M.Papis, 32; 9. D.Starr, 31; 10. C.Whitt, 30.

Sports, Pages 17 on 02/19/2011

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