Jimmie Johnson celebrates his Daytona 500 victory.
Call it Oscar inspiration. Call it pre-flight insomnia. Call it just the thing you should do after a big sporting event. Whatever the reason, we’re ready to hand out our Shake and Bake Awards from the Daytona 500. See who takes home the gold medals. Or maybe it’s a statue. We’re still deciding.
BEST TEASE OF 150,000 FANS
Winner: The Daytona track announcer. He triumphantly announced Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s surge as the cars came around the final turns on the last lap, causing a great cheer to erupt and many heads to turn … only to see Jimmie Johnson coast to the checkered flag. Earnhardt finished second.
BEST NON-ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: Jimmie Johnson showing up in Victory Lane. Stop me if you’ve heard that before. You have to hand it to the man … even if he wasn’t the crowd favorite at Daytona. Johnson won five straight NASCAR Cup titles between 2006 and 2010, then finished out of the top spot the past two years but is now right back on the trolley in 2013.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A COUPLE
Winner: Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. OK, they were the only couple competing in the race. I’ll give you that. But after starting with a pre-race hug, Danica went out and finished eighth and her new squeeze wasn’t far behind in 12th. That’s pretty darn solid. Expectations were high for Danica after winning the pole, and while the end result may not be satisfying, she was right in it the whole way.
BEST CELEBRITY PERFORMANCE
Winner: James Franco. Tough competition here with 50 Cent running wild on Twitter and track, and Zac Brown Band and Ray Lewis also making appearances. But Franco’s “Drivers … AND DANICA … start your engines!” is the weird line everyone’s talking about.
BEST IN-RACE TWITTER FEED
Winner: 50 Cent. We’ll warn you. It’s a pretty disgusting feed all around. But he had a few in-race gems of PG nature that take the cake.
Here he is driving on the side of the highway to beat traffic:
I’m on the side of the high way hope the cop’s don’t trip. instagr.am/p/WHl3NgsL5B/
— 50cent (@50cent) February 24, 2013
And here he is explaining why he chose to be buddies with Mark Martin for the day:
He's coolest driver here fool,hip hop all day check his play list"@tonyni: . @50cent is on @55markmartin's put ... m.tmi.me/LH044
— 50cent (@50cent) February 24, 2013
BEST POST-RACE TWITTER FIGHT
Winner: Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Hamlin, who called it a “frustrating day” on Twitter, took to the social media outlet to lay into Logano for his driving tactics. The two exchanged a couple barbs:
. @keselowski sorry I couldn’t get close to you cuz your genius teammate was too busy messing up the inside line 1 move at a time
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 24, 2013
@joeylogano inside line was doomed every 3 wide move that was made. Nobody who went 3 middle went anywhere
— Denny Hamlin (@dennyhamlin) February 24, 2013
BEST BAD LUCK
Winner (or whatever): Carl Edwards. Poor guy. Seems like every time we saw him this week he was either wrecking his cars or talking about how bad it felt to wreck his cars. Incidents in practices, the Budweiser Duel and the Daytona 500 itself left Edwards and his team searching for answers, aspirin and spare parts.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY DEBRIS
Winner: The piece of random paper that stuck to Jeff Gordon’s grill early in the race, in an easy win over the piece of sheet metal that Jimmie Johnson ran over late in the race. Johnson kept right on rolling after the ensuing caution and took the checkered flag. Gordon — who started in the No. 2 position and was leading at the time of his incident — fell back and finished 20th. Advantage: Paper.
