Daytona 500 rain delay leads to confusion, but a winner is crowned anyway [spoilers]

Filed under: Motorsports



One of the sponsors of yesterday's Daytona 500 NASCAR race broadcast on Fox was the movie Noah - yeah, the same Noah who had to build an ark to get through the worst rain delay ever. Fitting, then, that this year's race would be halted after 38 laps due to severe rain and the threat of even more dire weather. The interruption lasted a little more than six hours, during which time Fox aired a replay of the 2013 race, along with a crawling caption along the bottom of the screen that read, "You are now watching coverage of last year's Daytona 500."

As it turns out, not everyone paid attention to the important caption. When Jimmie Johnson was shown crossing the line in first place - in last year's race - Twitter and the Internet blew up with stories about his win - even his own friends tweeted him congratulations. Johnson tried to correct the matter with tweets of his own like, "I hear I won the #Daytona500?" and "Haha! I also have friends confused and texting congratulations to me." It didn't help. The site ESPNW joined numerous Twitteratti in congratulating Danica Patrick on her eighth-place finish - which she achieved last year. Folks on Twitter also blasted Jeff Gordon - who didn't finish in the top five, as he did this year - and hoped Tony Stewart was alright racing on his recently mended leg.

Perhaps worst of all, even the people in charge of Fox New's Facebook page didn't read their own screens. After Johnson "won," the Fox News FB page was updated with "JUST IN: Jimme Johnson wins the Daytona 500 for the third time in his career." The mea culpa came not long after, someone sent in at the end of a blunderbuss to "sincerely apologize to our viewers and readers for this inaccurate report." It all came good in the end, though, as the race was completed last night under the lights. In the end, sentimental favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took first place, ahead of Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski in third. Gordon didn't lead a single lap, but he finished fourth, and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
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Daytona 500 rain delay leads to confusion, but a winner is crowned anyway [spoilers] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 24 Feb 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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