Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 February 18

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From today's featured article

Kyle Busch in 2010
Kyle Busch

The 2012 Budweiser Shootout was the first exhibition stock car race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was held on February 18, 2012, before a crowd of 82,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the Daytona International Speedway, one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races. The 82-lap race was won by Kyle Busch (pictured) of the Joe Gibbs Racing team. It was Busch's first victory in the event; Tony Stewart finished second and Marcos Ambrose came in third. The race saw twenty-six lead changes, shared among thirteen drivers. Before the first turn, pole position driver Martin Truex, Jr. was passed by Jeff Gordon, and at the end of the first lap, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led. On the ninth lap, a multiple-car accident prompted the first caution flag. Sixteen laps later the second caution was issued, with Jamie McMurray leading. During the caution period, all teams made pit stops. On lap 62 Gordon reclaimed the lead and held it until his car hit the wall and rolled over, prompting the fifth and final caution. Stewart took the lead, but in the final lap, Busch passed him to win. The race attracted 7.46 million television viewers. (Full article...)

Did you know...

Rob Roy in 1924
Rob Roy in 1924

In the news

Alejandro G. Iñárritu in 2008
Alejandro G. Iñárritu

On this day...

February 18: Independence Day in the Gambia (1965)

Enterprise on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Enterprise on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

Today's featured picture

The Fall of Phaeton

The Fall of Phaeton is a painting by the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens depicting the Greek myth of Phaeton, the son of the sun god Apollo. In the myth, Phaeton received permission to drive the Sun chariot around Earth, but was unable to control the chariot and risked incinerating the world. Zeus was thus forced to kill him.

Rubens painted The Fall of Phaeton in Rome c. 1604/1605; the painting was probably reworked later, around 1606/1608. It is housed in the National Gallery of Art.

Painting: Peter Paul Rubens

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