#41-Kurt Busch won the 59th Annual Daytona 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway for his 1st win of the season, 1st win at Daytona and 29th career win. Busch led only the final lap after taking the lead from #42-Larson, who ran out of gas after taking the white flag.
#21-Blaney finished a career best 2nd, followed by #47-Allmendinger, #43-Almirola, #27-Menard, #22-Logano, #5-Kahne, #15-Waltrip (in his final Cup race), #32-DiBenedetto, and #6-Bayne.
The ‘big one happened on lap 127 when contact between #1-McMurray, #48-Johnson, and #6-Bayne led to a 16 car accident that eliminated #48-Johnson, #14-Bowyer, #10-Patrick, #96-Kennignton, and #37-Buescher.
Another big wreck followed on lap 141. #1-McMurray tried to pull inside of #24-Elliott but caught his bumper. 11 cars were involved and #1-McMurray, #2-Keselowski, #13-TDillon and #19-Suarez were eliminated from the race.
#24-Chase Elliott, the pole sitter, led 23 laps on the day, and was leading with 3 laps to go, but had a hiccup on gas and fell back to 14th at the finish.
#88-Earnhardt, Jr., running in his first race since Kentucky last July, started 2nd and was running near the front of the field when he was caught in an accident with Kyle Busch on lap 106. The team could not make repairs and he finished 37th.
#18-Busch was the leader at the end of stage one on lap 60, but he spun out when a tire went down on lap 106 and finished 38th.
#4-Harvick won stage two on lap 120, but got damage in an accident and finished 22nd.
There were 37 lead changes among 18 drivers and 8 cautions for 40 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 143.187mph.
Scheduled Race Re-Airs: Monday, February 27 at 3:00am/et on FS1 and Tuesday, February 28 at 6:30am/et on FS1
See unofficial race results, awards, laps led, cautions and [NOTE: money won is no longer reported] more at:
Unofficial Race Results page (pdf)
Penalty Report (pdf).
