Daytona 200: Josh Herrin overcomes late penalty with last-lap move to register first win in 13 years
DAYONA BEACH — A six-position penalty and an addition of five laps were just minor speed bumps on the way to a victory 13 years in the making.
Josh Herrin made a last gasp to the apron, completing a pass to lead a pack of five bikes to the checkered flag to win the Daytona 200 on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. It marked the second career victory in the race for Herrin, who last won it 13 years ago. That span represents the largest gap between wins in the race’s 81-year history.
Herrin sat on the pole, but it was anything but a routine ride to victory.
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Several riders went down late in the proceedings, but a dust-up between Herrin and Richie Escalante proved to be the most noteworthy. The two had separated from the field by 18 seconds as the event went under 10 laps to go and seemed destined to decide matters betwixt themselves.
But with eight to go, Herrin dove inside getting into Turn 1 and Escalante turned into him with Escalante going down and sliding across the pavement.
“We were after the final pit stop, I had been seeing different spots that I could overtake if I needed to. His bike was a missile,” Herrin said. “That was one of the spots where I thought would be a possibility and would kind of throw him off of his rhythm. With however many laps to go, I just saw an opening and wanted to try it, and as far as I was concerned, I was there, had the line.
“I’m just trying to figure out where I could win the race from. 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.”
Herrin scooted away and seemed poised to cruise to the win with a 24-second lead over Joshua Hayes. But Teague Hobbs, who was running fourth at the time, got tangled up with Jason Waters, who was two laps down and the race was red flagged with five to go.
With the bikes on pit road, MotoAmerica determined that Herrin would be penalized six positions for the contact with Escalante and five laps would be added to create a 10-lap shootout to the finish. Herrin quickly shot through the field and reassumed the lead until the final lap when he was overtaken.
Purposefully.
“Before the first banking, I went in hot and tried to get at least a couple guys to go by me because I didn’t think I would be able to hold it off leading,” said Herrin. “That worked out good. That was huge risk number one. Huge risk number two was going into the chicane I chopped everybody up and rolled through the chicane really slow to give (Hayes) about a five-to-10 bike-length lead because I knew if I was on him I would pass him about halfway through the banking and it would be a double-wide draft of guys behind and they would get by us.”
Hayes led getting out of the chicane and into Turn 3, but he was a sitting duck as the pack drafted to him. Herrin made a daring final dive to the apron coming into the trioval and it proved to be the winning move. Hayes came home second with Cameron Peterson finishing third to round out the podium.
Brandon Paasch, who had won each of the last two Daytona 200s, finished 12th after being assessed a pit-road penalty after the race.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 200: Josh Herrin claims second Daytona 200 title after 13 years
