You’d have to travel many miles to find a happier man to see rain than Michael Waltrip on Sunday. The problem would be whether he was happy to win the 45th running of the Daytona 500 or that the skies opened up just after halfway and kept the rain coming long enough for NASCAR officials to call the race complete.
“It’s just amazing that we put that car up front and then the rain started,” Waltrip said.  “I really wanted some rain, and I got it.”
Waltrip is now one of eight men that have won the Daytona 500 more than once and if you’re wondering what an elite group that is, keep in mind that three-time Winston Cup Champion Darrell Waltrip, Michael’s brother, only won once and seven-time Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt not only just won once, but it took him twenty years to do it.
Waltrip spent speedweeks very fast on the 2.5 mile-high banked oval, but really spent the week in the shadows of teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Junior was the odds-on favorite to win the race after taking the Bud Shootout, one of the 125-mile qualifying races and the Koolerz 300 Busch Grand National race. Waltrip used his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate to make the pass for the win just before the rains came.
The shortened race wasn’t without excitement as 2002 Rookie of the Year Ryan Newman took a wild ride down the tri-oval, flipping his Alltel Dodge several times after he got together with Ken Schrader and Bobby Labonte. Newman’s car went hard into the wall and caught the rear tire, ripping it off the rim. When he spun down into the infield grass, the wheel dug in and the ride was on. Newman was OK, but his Dodge was done for the day relegating him to a last place finish. Schrader spun and went down pit road with no steering, and him and Bobby Labonte got together when Labonte tried to miss the wreck, going down pit road also, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both drivers were also uninjured.
The race looked like it would be between Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. as both drivers dominated the front of the very tight pack of cars, but Earnhardt Jr. fell victim to a dead battery and had to pit, just before the halfway mark, leaving him two laps down.  Earnhardt Jr. pulled Waltrip with him on a restart which put him only one lap down and if the race had restarted after the second rain delay, Jr. would have had the chance to get back on the lead lap, which would have certainly put him back in the running. It wasn’t to be, as Waltrip led the most laps in the race and took the victory. Kurt Busch, who had won three of the last five races in 2002, kept his Ford in contention and credited his pit stop with getting him up to challenge for the lead. Busch also wouldn’t be able to show what he had, if anything, because of rain. Pole-sitter Jeff Green was also the victim of the wall as he took a wild ride and ended up many laps down. Drivers jockeyed back and forth throughout the day, moving from back to front several times. Columbia Tennessee’s Sterling Marlin who was in contention early, had a bad day as he went below the yellow line after another car turned down on him, forcing him to take what he called evasive action. NASCAR didn’t see it that way and penalized Marlin, who had to take a stop and go in the pits, putting him at the end of the lead lap. Without a drafting partner, Marlin had a hard time getting back to the front and struggled for the rest of the day.
The Daytona 500 hadn’t been shortened since 1966, and this year’s race took an anticlimactic turn because of the weather. But Michael Waltrip didn’t mind, and neither did others in the top ten that had struggled, but through pit strategy, or being in the right draft at the right moment, made it to the front. They also had hoped for rain in the back of their minds, and took their finish and went home happier than if the race had gone the full 200 laps. The disappointment was for the fans, because this race had all the indications of being one of the best finishes ever, and there were many stories that were never played out Sunday. Because of wet weather, we’ll never know, and as they say, that’s racing.

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