Sharp scores first AOWR win in wild Daytona race
If qualifying was going to be an indicator to this race, it was sure to be a shootout. Niles Anders took top honors in qualifying by setting the pace with a blazing lap of 36.923 to back up his impressive 2nd fastest time in practice. After it was said and done, the entire field was separated by less than .75 seconds in qualifying.
Unfortunately, Niles uncharacteristically spun his tires taking the green flag, creating havoc behind him and elimitating several fast cars very early on, including Tim Doyle, the points leader. Once a race pace had settled in, it was Mark Witz and Andy Shuck that led a combined 38 of the 60 laps of the race. The race was marred by several cautions which eliminated many cars that were undamaged from earlier events. On lap 50, J.R. Sharp made a 3 wide pass for the lead over Taylor Munroe and Cary Bettenhausen exiting turn 2. This ended up being the pass for the race as a late caution bottled up the field for one last, 3 lap shootout. J.R. Sharp held of a late race charge from Mark Witz and Vincent Sciuto to take the checkers for the 1st time in his Dallara Indycar career.
The points race grew ever so tight as the series heads to Michigan next week. Tim Doyle maintains a slight 5 point advantage over JR Sharp, with Mike Peters looming just 27 points back in 3rd.
