DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Kurt Busch explained what the Daytona 500 is all about in one simple declarative sentence.
"The race is about taking your time and positioning yourself for a later run," he said.
That coming from a man who started the day in 43d and last place and who wound up second.
The race is also now about something else: T-E-A-M, yay, team.
The team in question was Penske Racing. After 199-plus laps, the 50th anniversary Daytona 500 was decided when Busch gave teammate Ryan Newman a push across the finish line.
"The push from heaven," said Newman, who not only won his first Daytona, but who also won his first Sprint race since Loudon, N.H., in 2005, 81 long races ago.
Roger Penske is the czar of open-wheel racing, a man who has known victory at the Indianapolis 500 14 times but someone who has been struggling to win NASCAR's certified Super Bowl for nigh on 30 years. "Comparing this to the Indy 500, it's been tough," Penske said. "This has to go to the top of the charts."
Busch was practically in need of a full tissue box. He must have mentioned how proud he was to have been involved in a 1-2 Penske finish about 177 times, twice referring to his boss as "the captain."
The truth is he will come out of this race with a polished reputation, not to mention résumé. He took one for the Penske Team just to enter a race with a "champion's provisional" after Penske shifted some of his points to NASCAR rookie teammate Sam Hornish, Jr., the three-time Indy Racing League champion who is attempting to make the shift from open-wheel racing, to get him in the race. Then, when the Moment of Truth came on yesterday's final lap, he gave up any chance of winning himself by giving Newman the push he needed.
The victim of all this Penske teamwork was Tony Stewart, and therein lies another Busch story. Mr. Stewart and Mr. Busch were involved in a well-chronicled dustup last week that reportedly culminated in the former throwing a punch at the latter. Poetic justice does not begin to summarize the scope of that.
Stewart will have the rest of the season to second-guess himself over his strategy in the final lap. Leading after 199 laps in a race punctuated by a great many cautions in the final 25 laps, he could not finish the job. He made a fateful decision to go low on the backstretch, and the Penske duo went high in response. "It's tough going from first to third on the last lap," Stewart said with a sigh. "I just made a bad decision."
But one of the morals of the story was that it is not always a good thing to be in the lead.
"Absolutely," he said. "We've lost races twice this week leading on re-starts."
He'll get no argument from the new Daytona 500 champ.
"You honestly don't want to be in the lead too soon," said Newman. "I can honestly say the leader is a sitting duck on every re-start."
This was a race replete with subplots. The man who led this race for 86 laps was none other than Kurt Busch's younger brother, Kyle. He finished fourth. Newman's crew chief is Ray McCauley, who had worked with him before, but who was returned to him this season by Penske after having worked for Busch. McCauley had a tough year caring for his wife, who was diagnosed with cancer almost a year to the day before he became the first man to be in charge of a Penske Daytona champion.
It kinda makes you think some things are just meant to be.
There wasn't much certain for most of the afternoon and early evening. Sixteen drivers battled through the race's 42 lead changes. There was enough side-by-side racing to satisfy the most avid racing fan. For one brief moment late in the race cars were even four abreast. The frequent cautions in the last quarter of the race made for an ever-changing dynamic.
Stewart, for example, was floundering in 29th place as late as Lap 94 before beginning a surge that put him in the lead as late as Lap 160. He fell back to ninth by Lap 180, but there he was, leading with a lap to go.
Which brings us back to Kurt Busch's central premise. At Daytona, you need patience.
Busch explained that there are two entirely different races here. The first is the afternoon portion, when the sun and heat make for one kind of track. The second is the twilight/evening portion, when it is a very different racing surface, and which calls for a different type of driving.
For most of the race, he explained, you're clicking off laps. And then the real race starts.
"It's almost like you inject adrenaline," he said. "You take it up a level."
And if you're lucky, there will be a teammate in the right place at the right time, as Busch was for Newman.
"Every year, the emphasis on team becomes a bigger and bigger factor," said Stewart.
It was revealed that Penske driver contracts call for nice bonuses for success in races such as the Daytona 500. Let us hope Mr. Penske remembers that in this case the man who finished second was just as important as the man who finished first.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.
