Dillon wins Daytona 500 in famed No. 3

DAYTONA BEACH – Twenty years ago, Dale Earnhardt Sr. put his iconic No. 3 car in Victory Lane after winning his first and only Daytona 500.

Twenty years later, the No. 3 car found Victory Lane again. This time at the hands of Austin Dillon.

Dillon was running second when he bumped race leader Aric Almirola on the backstretch. Almirola spun and relinquished the lead to Dillon on the last lap of overtime. Dillon held on and crossed the line 0.260 seconds ahead of the second-place car of Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., winning his first Daytona 500.

“Right now, I just want to thank the good Lord above,” Dillon said. “I did what I had to do there at the end. I hate it for the No. 10 (Aric Almirola) guys. We had a run, and I stayed in the gas. It is what it is here at Daytona. This is so awesome to take the No. 3 car back to Victory Lane. This one is for Dale Earnhardt Sr. and all (his) fans. I love you guys. We are going to keep kicking butt the rest of the year!

“I met a fan and actually he had no favorite driver. I told him I would give him my hat if I was his favorite driver. Well, I gave him the hat. The next day, he saw me in the infield and said, ‘Here is a lucky penny I found heads-up.’ And I said, ‘Man, we have to put this in the car.’ We put it in the car, and here we are in Victory Lane.”

Denny Hamlin overcame a penalty for pitting outside his box and finished third. Joey Logano finished fourth and Chris Buescher recorded a fifth-place finish.

In the closing laps, the 40-car field was spread single-file over the track, but a spin by rookie William Byron in Turn 4 with 10 laps remaining reset the field.

In a seven-lap shootout, Ryan Blaney led the field to green, but with two laps left in the race, Blaney got into the No. 41 car of Kurt Busch, sparking a 12–car accident that sent the 60th running of NASCAR’s premier race into overtime and sent several cars, including Kurt Busch and reigning Coke Zero 400 champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., to the garage, as they would be unable to finish the race.

Blaney’s car sustained damage, but his team repaired the damage on pit road without having Blaney go down a lap. He finished seventh after leading a race-high 118 laps.

Incidents in the first two stages ended several contenders’ days early, including the odds-on favorite to win, Brad Keselowski.

The first stage of the regular season concluded with a multi-car crash, which took out several cars, including Jimmie Johnson and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez, from the race.

The accident began when Stenhouse attempted to block Blaney on the backstretch. Stenhouse got loose but managed to hang on to his No. 17 car. The move set off a chain reaction and resulted in a nine–car accident, ending four drivers’ days.

Johnson, who finished 38th, ended Speedweeks without finishing any of the three races, as he wrecked out in all three races.

On Lap 101, Chase Elliott was running second when Keselowski pushed Elliott on the backstretch. The push by Keselowski got Elliott’s car loose, and Keselowski dropped to the inside to pass him, but Elliott got into his No. 2 car. After making contact with Keselowski, Elliott turned hard to the right and made significant impact with the outside wall.

Though Elliott got out of the car safely, the incident collected six other cars, including Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne.

Danica Patrick, racing in her last Cup Series race, was also involved, and she finished 35th.

She will end her career with no wins or top-five finishes in 191 races.

“I had such a fast Camaro ZL1 today, and I just wanted a shot there at the end,” Elliott said. “Tough circumstances. I was just trying to feel Blaney out and see what he was going to do, how aggressive he wanted to be. I had a big push and got light at the wrong time. Didn't make the right move."

Tire problems plagued Kyle Busch and the No. 18 team in the first stage. On Lap 28, the driver for Joe Gibbs Racing had a left-rear tire go down and was forced to make an unexpected pit stop.

Twenty-two laps later, Kyle Busch, who was one lap down, suffered another tire issue, which caused his No. 18 Toyota to spin in Turn 3. As he was spinning, D.J. Kennington ran into Kyle Busch, bringing significant contact to his race car, but his team was able to make repairs and put him back on the track.

Following the spin, he would receive three penalties and would be black-flagged to repair his rear bumper before the conclusion of the race. He recorded a 25th-place finish.

Kurt Busch, after staying out after a multitude of drivers pitted under caution following Kyle Busch’s spin, took over the lead from Joey Logano with eight laps to go in the first stage and held on to win the season-opening stage.

Blaney led a stage-high 48 laps in Stage 2 and held off a hard-charging Paul Menard to the line.