In just his third Cup Series start, 20-year-old Justin Haley wins with his car parked on the grid

DAYTONA BEACH — As a parting gift, the ol’ Firecracker delivered a bit of a dud. It was nobody’s fault, unless you find it proper to blame the weatherman.

Only Justin Haley, making his third career Cup Series start, and the small knot of crewmen and family members around him left fulfilled. Overly fulfilled, actually, assuming they didn’t leave room in their luggage for a trophy.

“It’s absolutely a blessing,” said Haley, the unexpected and largely unknown recipient of that trophy for winning the 61st Coke Zero Sugar 400, which made its last July run — a day later than planned — before moving to late August next year.

“Winning,” of course, is sometimes relative. Few if any NASCAR victories have come with this much happenstance riding along.

When nearby lightning strikes sidelined the field at 3:18 p.m., a last-second series of pit stops left Haley sitting at the front of the line in his No. 77 Chevrolet — a Chevy belonging to first-year team Spire Motorsports, which has finished no better than 22nd while employing six different drivers this year.

Additional lightning strikes, within an 8-mile radius of Daytona International Speedway, added to the delay, and were eventually joined by heavy rain that soaked what remained of the estimated 30,000 who watched an entertaining race while it lasted.

Kurt Busch, who skated past the Big One, was leading the field, behind the pace car, as cleanup ensued. With just one pace lap remaining, Busch’s team was among those electing to pit with 33 laps remaining. He’d trade the lead for fresh tires and fuel, knowing so many of the top contenders were now out.

But as Busch and others pitted and returned to the field, a nearby lightning strike meant the caution period would continue with a new group of non-pitters up front.

Oops.

At 5:30, two hours and 12 minutes after parking his car on pit lane, Haley was inside the drivers’ meeting room when he was declared the winner.

“The stars aligned,” he said.

And how.

First, he missed the Big One, and here’s a sentence you’ve likely never read about an eventual winner: Haley missed that 17-car pileup because he wasn’t fast enough to be close to it. He was running 27th at the time.

“The whole goal today was to keep far enough from the pack that I wouldn’t get into any incidents, but stay close enough that we don’t go a lap down,” he said. “I was just far enough back that we could avoid that wreck but close enough that I could keep in the draft.”

Haley is a 20-year-old Indiana native who cut his teeth racing quarter-midgets — “I’m just a dirt-racer from Indiana” — and has spent the past couple of years building a NASCAR portfolio. He’s in his first full-time Xfinity Series season this year and is eighth in points.

He won three Truck Series races last year and, many will tell you, won an Xfinity race at Daytona in July with one of the most daring and successful passes for victory in the track’s history. His wild pass in the tri-oval, practically in the shadow of the checkered flag, was a beauty, but because his left wheels inched below the yellow out-of-bounds lines, the win was taken away.

Talk about payback.

“I’ll call it even,” Haley said with a smile.

Often, the winner of a rain-shortened race will suggest he would’ve been a contender and maybe even a winner without the stoppage. Haley didn’t bother. He knew there would be too much high-priced machinery in his rear-view mirror if the race restarted.

“Probably would’ve gotten ate up pretty quick on the restart,” he said.

While fans might feel let down, possibly even cheated by Mother Nature, lifetime racers won’t begrudge Haley and his Spire Motorsports team for happily accepting their gift.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said T.J. Puchyr, the team’s co-owner. “I’ve lost my share of these races; I’ve been racing all my life. This isn’t new to us. It’s not lost on me that luck was on our side today, but I’m not gonna feel bad about it. We’re gonna continue as the little engine that could.”