Dale Jr. dominates at Daytona; Austin Dillon has scary wreck

Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, which was rain-delayed to late Sunday night into early Monday morning, to score his second win of the year in the #88 Chevrolet. The end of the race featured a huge crash in which Austin Dillon flipped through the air, hitting the catchfence and landing on his roof. Dillon was uninjured, but several fans along the frontstretch did suffer minor injuries.

Earnhardt won the race from the pole after qualifying was rained out and was set by first practice speeds. He led 96 of 161 laps in the race, and had plently of help from his teammate Jimmie Johnson in the #48 Chevrolet. Just a few laps into the race, a crash was triggered by the #38 Ford of David Gilliland and claimed other cars including the #22 Ford of Joey Logano, the #26 Toyota of rookie Jeb Burton and the #32 Ford of Bobby Labonte. Later, a pair of bigger wrecks took out drivers such as Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Brian Scott, J.J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, Sam Hornish Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. A crash on lap 156 between McMurray and Hornish set up the green-white-checkered dash to the checkered flag, which was when the Dillon crash took place. This race also marked the last Daytona start for Jeff Gordon.

Race Results:

1. (1) 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 96 laps
2. (12) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 35 laps
3. (35) 11-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 161 laps, led 10 laps
4. (34) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 161 laps
5. (28) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 161 laps
6. (23) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 161 laps
7. (2) 3-Austin Dillon - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 8 laps
8. (17) 31-Ryan Newman - Chevrolet - 161 laps, led 1 lap
9. (5) 6-Trevor Bayne - Ford - 161 laps
10. (3) 15-Clint Bowyer - Toyota - 161 laps, led 1 lap