Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski led 115 of 161 laps on his way to an exciting win under the lights at Daytona Saturday night. The highest finishing Chevrolet driver in the wreck-filled race was Kyle Larson, who crossed the finish line sixth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet SS.
Keselowski moved into the lead for good on Lap 145 after making a daring pass on Toyota’s Kyle Busch. He managed to hold the lead through two restarts, which came about after two wrecks: the first collecting Chevy’s Tony Stewart and the second claiming four cars in total.
The race restarted in overtime on Lap 160 after the four-car Lap 155 wreck. Keselowski’s Team Penske teammate Joey Logano gave him a push from behind when the flag came back out, allowing him to easily pull away from second place’s Kyle Busch and third place’s Trevor Bayne.
Surprisingly, the race ran without incident for the first 89 laps, but the trend didn’t last. A Lap 90 wreck sparked by Jamie McMurray collected 22 cars in the 40-car field and took McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard and Kevin Harvick out of the race. Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Danica Patrick also suffered heavy damage in the Big One.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leader Kevin Harvick was hardly surprised by the field-wide wreck.
“You really think it’s going to happen from Lap 1,” Harvick told NASCAR.com post-race. “It’s hard to make ground, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you start making ground.”
“Just kind of riding there, just maintaining until that next pit stop so we could get my car off the ground and then really start being aggressive. I really couldn’t be aggressive, and unfortunately, I was in the back of that front pack and ended up getting in the wreck.”
NASCAR heads to Kentucky next for the Quaker State 400 Presented by Advance Auto Parts. Click here for full results from Daytona and here for a full schedule of next weekend’s NASCAR festivities.
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