#48-Jimmie Johnson won the 55th running of the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway for his 2nd career Daytona 500 win and 61st career win . Johnson is the 10th driver to win multiple Daytona 500s. Johnson won in his 400th career start, the 6th driver to do so. #88-Earnhardt Jr. finished 2nd followed by #55-Martin, #2-Keselowski, #39-Newman, #16-Biffle, #51-Smith, #10-Patrick (1st career top 10 in 11 races), #98-McDowell (first career top 10 in 155 races) and #36-Yeley (1st top 10 since 2008) #20-Kenseth led 86 laps until he blew an engine on lap 149. Pole sitter #10-Danica Patrick finished 8th, the best finish for a female driver, Janet Guthrie finish 11th in 1980. On lap 138 #21-Bayne got into the rear of the #2-Keselowski in turn 1, Keselowski went to the apron, Bayne spun and collected #99-Edwards (he was involved in wrecks during practice, the Sprint Unlimited, the Budweiser Duel and now the Daytona 500) #33-Dillon, #34-Ragan, #35-Wise, #38-Gilliland, #32-Labonte and #17-Stenhouse Jr. On lap 90, #10-Patrick led a lap, the first woman to lead a lap in the Daytona 500. On lap #32, the three lead cars slowed, 4th in linr, #6-Kahne hit the brakes and #18-Busch got into the rear of the #5, causing the #5 to spin. Other cars collected were #29-Harvick, #14-Stewart, #42-Montoya, #1-McMurray, #13-Mears and #78-Busch. Early in the race, #38-Gilliland was slow and thought he was down a cylinder, ended up being a plug wire not connected. It was the seventh Daytona 500 victory for owner Rick Hendrick. Chevrolet now has 22 Daytona 500 victories, more than any other manufacturer. A Team Chevy driver has won seven of the last 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series openers at the 2.5-mile track. There were 28 lead changes among 14 drivers and 6 cautions for 24 yellow flag laps. The average speed was 159.250mph. See race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Daytona 500 Race Results page (pdf) and Daytona Penalty Report .
