Busch Clash turns into 'dirt-track race' on Daytona Road Course

The Busch Clash at Daytona was expected to be a fairly clean race on the 3.6-mile, 14-turn Daytona Road Course. Instead it quickly turned into what drivers jokingly called "a dirt-track race."

Drivers had trouble early in the Busch Clash with dirt covering their cars and the track after they ran through the grass while negotiating a turn. Some drivers had so much dirt on the windshields of their cars that they had trouble seeing.

"I can't see," defending Cup Series champion Chase Elliott told his crew as he drove from the rear of the field into the top 15.

"There's so much dirt," said driver Kevin Harvick, who wrecked early in the race.

There was so much dirt flying around the track during the Busch Clash that drivers were joking that it looked like a preview of the March 28 dirt race at Bristol. The high-banked, half-mile track at Bristol will be covered with dirt for the first dirt-track race in the Cup Series since 1970.

Truex's onboard camera is a sight to behold #BuschClash #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/DCeNzl7R0S

— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) February 10, 2021

The problems started early in the Busch Clash for a couple of top drivers. Harvick ran off track on Lap 3, while Joey Logano slammed hard into a curb while racing teammate Brad Keselowski.

.@KevinHarvick enters the spin cycle early. 😳@DAYTONA | #BuschClash pic.twitter.com/ksOvauobJc

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 10, 2021

Logano and other drivers pitted early in the Busch Clash just to check for damage to their cars and get their windshields cleaned.

"Pull the tape. Clean the grille. Don't go anywhere until you clean the grille," Logano told his crew over his team radio.

Denny Hamlin talks to Bubba Wallace prior to the Busch Clash at Daytona.

NASCAR threw an early caution flag on Lap 9 of the Busch Clash because of excessive dirt on the bus-stop portion of the course on the backstretch.

"It's bad back there," said Ryan Blaney, who started on the pole but quickly lost the lead to Denny Hamin. Blaney missed Turn 1 and wrecked on the ensuring restart, while Harvick also wrecked for the second time.

"Harvick is not loving this race track. It has not been kind to him," said Fox TV analyst Clint Bowyer, Harvick's former teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Martin Truex Jr. led the Busch Clash when NASCAR threw a scheduled competiton caution on Lap 16. But Truex missed the frontstretch chicane while circling the track under caution and had to drop to the rear of the field after pit stops. Kurt Busch then missed the chicane on the restart, running way off the track and onto the frontstretch of the Daytona oval track.

Elliott, the Busch Clash favorite who had won the last four road-course races, had to start at the rear of the field due to an unapproved adjustment prior to the race.

Hamlin, who started third, took the lead ealry in the Busch Clash, and then regained the lead after the competition caution.