There was high drama at Daytona on Sunday – 35 lead changes and more late-lap slobber-knocking than any race not run on a Saturday-night dirt track. You had Dale Earnhardt, Jr. the sport’s most popular driver, a guy so cool MTV and ESPN both ran specials on him last week, hovering in the top ten all day and leading with less than 20 laps to go. Then you had perennial bad-boys Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch both creeping to the front like an unstoppable fungus. Clint Bowyer had the lead until Juan Pablo Montoya wrecked him. And Jeff Gordon appeared to be setting everybody up for a run at the end until his suspension broke and he hobbled back to the garage.
 
With one to go, it was Stewart, Busch, Junior coming on strong, and the winner was…Ryan Newman? How did The Great American Race end up with Ryan Newman as its winner? And who saw this coming? Certainly not Newman’s wife, who wore a ratty sweatshirt and not a stitch of makeup to Victory Lane. Even car owner Roger Penske seemed stunned. 

“I can say I've been here almost probably 30 years trying to get in Victory Circle,” a stunned Penske said afterward. “To achieve this with this competition, with Ryan, the student really of the sport, and Roy and the whole team, just been unbelievable.”

You can say that again. Even Newman was stunned. One of the brightest drivers in the sport with an engineering degree from Purdue became a babbling mess after the race. 

“It's awesome,” he said. “It's probably one of the most awesomest things that's ever happened to me.  To understand all the history of NASCAR, of racing in general, you know, the drivers meeting, to be looking face to face with all the guys, the greats that were on stage up there, and now to be part of one of those guys and part of that team, it's just awesome.” 

There were a few more awesomes later in the spiel, but you get the point.  Newman was pushed across the finish line by his teammate Kurt Busch, which prompted another quote worth remembering from the weekend.

“Obviously Kurt Busch, without a doubt, he could have easily gone three-wide and split us through the center and made one heck of a mess there, but he chose to be a teammate. That's the most honorable thing that he could do.” 

The next time you hear Kurt Busch and “honorable” in the same breath, keep your eyes peeled for the Four Horsemen or a giant meteor hurling toward earth…or Ryan Newman winning the Daytona 500.