#43-Aric Almirola won the Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway. It is his 1st career win and he puts him in position for a Chase spot this season. The race was called after 112 laps after persistent showers prevented NASCAR from drying the track.
It is the 199th win for car #43 and the first since April 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville. It is also 30 years since Richard Petty’s 200th career win.
#55-Vickers finished 2nd followed by #41-Busch, #13-Mears, #3-Dillon, #11-Hamlin, #95-McDowell, #10-Patrick, #15-Bowyer, and #9-Ambrose.
The race was postponed to Sunday due to rain Saturday evening.
There was a 25 minute red flag on lap 10 for rain.
The first ‘big one’ happened on lap 20 when #17-Stenhouse, Jr. got lose near the front of the field, Gordon checked up and got into Stewart, who then hit Stenhouse, Jr. and spun him into traffic, collecting 16 cars.
The ‘bigger one’ was on lap 98. #16-Biffle appeared to get into the back of #5-Kahne, who hooked #22-Logano. They spun into traffic. A total of 26 cars were involved in the accident. Only 13 cars running on the lead lap were not involved. There was a 5 minute red flag while the track was cleared.
Pole winner #38-Gilliland was caught in the wreck on lap 98. He finished 35th.
#24-Gordon (1 win) keeps the points lead after finishing 12th and extends his points lead over to 27 points. #88-Earnhardt, Jr is now in 2nd.
#48-Johnson leads the Chase Grid with three wins, 3rd in points. #88-Earnhardt Jr. is second with 2 wins, 2nd in points then #2-Keselowski 2 & 4th, #22-Logano 2 & 6th, #99-Edwards 2 & 7th, and #4-Harvick 2 and 11th.
There were 21 lead changes among 14 drivers. There were 6 cautions for 29 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 130.014mph.
See unofficial race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Unofficial Daytona Race Results page (pdf) and check out the Daytona Penalty Report (pdf).
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Daytona Race & Points Report (pdf).
