ESPNW Fooled by Re-run of Last Year's Daytona 500

Though Fox aired a replay of last year’s Daytona 500 because this year’s Super Bowl in NASCAR was postponed due to rain and tornado warnings, espnW’s twitter account congratulated Danica for having the highest finish “of any woman ever at the Daytona 500.” 

The account also urged its followers “flip on Daytona” because Danica Patrick was in the top 5 before that tweet. 

Except @espnW did not realize it was watching last year’s race, where Patrick started at the pole position, became the first woman to ever lead the Great American Race, which prompted tweets in support from Sarah Palin, and finished eighth to Jimmy Johnson, who won the race. The tweets were immediately deleted after espnW was resoundingly mocked. 

“@espnW: Time to flip on Daytona. @DanicaPatrick in the front 5. Less than 10 laps to go. # Go Danica ” lol wow its last year’s fluke!!!

— Jeff (@Thejrose76) February 23, 2014

Aaahaha this account has 55K followers. “@espnW: Time to flip on Daytona. @DanicaPatrick in the front 5. Less than 10 laps to go. #GoDanica“

— Nick Yeoman (@NYeoman) February 23, 2014

LMAO. RT @espnW Time to flip on Daytona. @DanicaPatrick in the front 5. Less than 10 laps to go. #GoDanica

— Ricky Dimon (@RD_Tennistalk) February 23, 2014

Dale Earnhardt Jr won the Great American Race after the rain delay and though ESPNW did not apologize like Fox News’ Facebook account, it did seem to acknowledge its mishap in a subsequent tweet after the re-start. 

.@DanicaPatrick led two laps before halfway point of Daytona. 2014’s Daytona ;) http://t.co/pdKuuDhrCu

— espnW (@espnW) February 24, 2014