Pictured is last year’s run of the Daytona 200. (Photo by Daytona Int’l Speedway)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With an exhilarating leap to the inner apron as a pack of five bikes poised to cross the finish line within half a second of each other, Josh Herrin won the second Daytona 200 championship of his top-flight career, 13 years after the first on the podium.
The 13 years between wins is the longest gap between Daytona 200 victories in the race’s history. The longest streak to date has been seven for Eddie Lawson with wins in 1986 and 1993.
For Ducati, it was the manufacturer’s second win after the last win with Jason DiSalvo in 2011. Yamaha secured second and third places with Joshua Hayes on the #4 Squid Hunter Racing bike and Cameron Peterson rounded out the podium on that #4. 45 from attack power Yamaha.
Herrin took pole position for the 81st running of the Daytona 200, but the race wasn’t easy for the No. 2 Warhorse rider, HSBK Ducati NYC.
With 24 laps to go, Celtic/Tytlers Cycle/TSE Racing leader PJ Jacobsen crashed in the infield and three laps later Disrupt Racing’s Hayden Gillim crashed in the middle of the Le Mans chicane on the oval backrest. Both had been running in the top 6 at the time of their incidents. Gillim was able to right his bike again and stayed on the lead lap to return as a factor late in the race.
After the second set of pit stops, Herrin and Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki rider Richie Escalante pulled away from the rest of the field to extend an 18-second lead over third-placed Hayes with 10 laps to go. The pair traded the lead back and forth — and sometimes from lap to lap.
But with eight laps to go, Escalante and Herrin went toe-to-toe out of turn one when Herrin dove into Escalante to reach the pass and only Herrin made it through. Escalante went down and Mistress was left alone in front.
“We were after the last pit stop, I had seen various spots that I could overtake if necessary. His bike was a rocket,” Herrin said after the race. “That was one of the points where I thought it was a possibility and it would kind of throw him off his rhythm. With so many laps to go I just saw a gap and wanted to try and as for me I was there, had the line.
“I’m just trying to figure out where I could win the race. I was just trying to get creative and find spots and I think he just wasn’t expecting it because it wasn’t the last lap.”
After the incident, Herrin built up a 24-second lead over Hayes, but a red flag with five laps to go for an incident between fourth-placed Teague Hobbs on his Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki and Edge Racing Yamaha rider Jason Waters in the infield. The field was pitted and Hobbs was able to get his bike back into pits and fixed for the restart.
Two official decisions were announced by MotoAmerica during the red flag.
Herrin was penalized by six places on the restart for the Escalante incident, dropping him to seventh and putting Hayes on pole for the restart. Additionally, five laps were added to the rest of the race to make it a 10-lap sprint for the finish. The grid penalty didn’t hurt Herrin as he rejoined the lead a lap after the restart.
A fight developed between Herrin, Hayes, Gillim and Petersen, reminiscent of Herrin and Escalante at the start of the race.
When Herrin reached the white flag, he was leading a tightly packed lead group of seven riders. Coming out of the infield onto the high banks, he pulled a strategic move and swerved wide to allow two riders to get past him.
“Before the first banking, I went in hot and tried to get at least a few guys to pass me because I didn’t think I would be able to prevent the lead,” Herrin said. “That worked out well. That was risk number one. The big risk number two was the chicane. I chopped everyone up and rolled very slowly through the chicane to give Josh a five to ten bike length lead because I knew if I was on him I would pass him about halfway across the bank, and it would be a double wide pull of guys behind and they would pass us.
Hayes carried that small gap out of the Le Mans chicane and up onto the bench. But it wasn’t enough of a lead as the pack caught him in a draft as he came onto the front stretch and Herrin leapt to the inside apron for the winning pass as the pack reached the finish line.
Two-time Daytona 200 Champion and TOBC Racing rider Brandon Paasch was in the leading group of six bikes that initially pulled away from the field, but a pit lane speeding penalty at the first pit stop earned him a 15-second time penalty was evaluated at the end of the race. He crossed the finish line with the sevens lead pack but was relegated to 12th place.
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