Joey Logano wins the 57th Daytona 500

Joey Logano took the win in Sunday's Daytona 500 driving the #22 Ford for Roger Penske. This is Logano's ninth Sprint Cup Series win and his first in a restrictor plate race. It was somewhat of an upset considering the big storylines heading into the race were this being Jeff Gordon's final Daytona 500 start and the high possibility of Gordon's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking his super-fast car to a second straight victory, and third overall, in the Great American Race. Gordon got caught up in a last-lap crash triggered by Austin Dillon during a green-white-checkered finish and had to settle for 28th, while Earnhardt led 32 laps mid-race, then got shuffled back to 20th on the penultimate restart, worked his way up to eighth by the time of the overtime-causing Justin Allgaier crash which prompted a brief red flag, then got up to third on the final restart before the caution for the Gordon incident froze the field.

Other occurrences during the race included Tony Stewart getting into the wall with Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard getting damage, Logano's teammate Brad Keselowski suffering a blown engine as well as the Penske-affiliated #21 Wood Brothers Ford of Ryan Blaney, a pit road mishap for two-time winner Jimmie Johnson and a constant tight three-wide racing pack, particularly throughout the second half of the race. Logano's win also completed Ford's Speedweeks points race weekend sweep, as Ford vehicles also won the Camping World Truck Series race on Friday (a Penske-affiliated truck won that race) and the Xfinity Series race on Saturday. Another story that surfaced by Saturday evening was the absence of both Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle. Kurt is suspended amid legal issues and was replaced by Regan Smith, while Kyle was injured in an Xfinity Series crash and subsequently had leg surgery, allowing two-time truck champion Matt Crafton to make his first Sprint Cup start.

This is car owner Roger Penske's second Daytona 500 win. His first came in 2008 when Kurt Busch, then driving the #2 Dodge that Brad Keselowski now drives as a Ford, pushed Ryan Newman in the #12 Dodge (which is now Logano's #22 Ford) past the Toyota of Tony Stewart to victory with a last-lap pass. Penske also owns 15 Indianapolis 500 victories given to him by several drivers.

The Sprint Cup Series along with the other two national series visit the Atlanta suburb of Hampton, Georgia on February 28 and March 1. This will be the first spring race weekend at Atlanta since 2010, after which the track lost one of its Cup dates to Kentucky, and the first time the second race weekend of the season will be held in the southern United States since 2004.

Race Results:

1. 22 - Joey Logano - Ford - 203 laps
2. 4 - Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 203 laps
3. 88 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 203 laps
4. 11 - Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 203 laps
5. 48 - Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 203 laps
6. 13 - Casey Mears - Chevrolet - 203 laps
7. 15 - Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 203 laps
8. 78 - Martin Truex Jr. - Chevrolet - 203 laps
9. 5 - Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 203 laps
10. 16 - Greg Biffle - Ford - 203 laps