Rookie Trevor Bayne caused a major upset in the Daytona 500 by taking his maiden NASCAR win in only his second Sprint Cup Series outing while becoming the youngest winner of the blue riband event.
With just a single Cup race under his belt before entering events at Daytona, Bayne, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Saturday, made history by becoming the seventh driver to win the Daytona 500 at his first attempt while ending a 10-year win-less streak for Wood Brothers Racing.
Racing for NASCAR's oldest team, Bayne survived a chaotic race that saw a race-record 16 caution periods, and then made the right moves in the green-white-chequered finish.
Following a first attempt to finish the race under green, Bayne inherited the lead from Roush Fenway's David Ragan, who got penalised for jumping the penultimate restart while trying to quickly get in tandem formation with Bayne, hoping to break away from the field.
Once in the lead in the legendary #21 Ford, Bayne found his new drafting partner in JTG Daugherty's Bobby Labonte, the Toyota pushing him from the final green flag all the way to the last corner, as the chasing tandem of pre-race favourite Kurt Busch (Penske) and Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya ran out of steam along the back stretch on the last lap.
Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards, pushed by a second Ford of David Gilliland, closed on the leaders and Edwards was able to place the nose of his car right on the inside of Labonte's out of the last corner, leaving Bayne up front without a push from behind.
However the rookie from Knoxville, Tennessee was able to keep enough momentum while guarding the inside line, preventing Edwards from getting a run on him as the chequered flag waved ahead of them after 208 laps.
"I can't even describe it," said a stunned Bayne, who struggled to find his way to Victory Lane. "It's our first time coming here so I feel a little undeserving. It's just unbelievable. It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced.
"Honestly I didn't think I had a chance. Every time it seemed like the second pack would catch the guys at the front. This is a race where you've got to have to have somebody helping you to win it. Everybody that helped me there, I can't thank them enough.
"I felt like I was in the worst possible place I could be, leading on the last lap. But coming out of Turn 4 I said 'there's no way, we're leading this Daytona 500 coming to the chequered'.
"Then I had this incredible push from [Labonte] and actually I was kind of worried when David Ragan had to do the black flag penalty there. I thought we had lost our help and we were going to be in trouble but it just worked awesome for us."
Results - 208 laps
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Trevor Bayne Wood Brothers Ford 4h03m32.000s
2. Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Ford + 0.118s
3. David Gilliland Front Row Ford + 0.172s
4. Bobby Labonte JTG Daugherty Toyota + 0.343s
5. Kurt Busch Penske Dodge + 0.762s
6. Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet + 0.929s
7. Regan Smith Furniture Row Chevrolet + 2.170s
8. Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Toyota + 2.228s
9. Paul Menard Childress Chevrolet + 2.711s
10. Mark Martin Hendrick Chevrolet + 2.737s
11. AJ Allmendinger Petty Ford + 2.769s
12. Bill Elliott Phoenix Chevrolet + 2.832s
13. Tony Stewart Stewart Haas Chevrolet + 3.825s
14. David Ragan Roush Fenway Ford + 5.094s
15. Terry Labonte FAS Lane Ford + 5.335s
16. Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Dodge + 5.679s
17. Clint Bowyer Childress Chevrolet + 12.263s
18. Jamie McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet + 16.208s
19. Martin Truex Jr Waltrip Toyota + 33.421s
20. Steve Wallace Rusty Wallace Toyota + 34.097s
21. Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Toyota + 1 lap
22. Ryan Newman Stewart Haas Chevrolet + 2 laps
23. Joey Logano Joe Gibbs Toyota + 2 laps
Retirements:
Dale Earnhardt Jr Hendrick Chevrolet 202 laps
Kasey Kahne Red Bull Toyota 199 laps*
Dave Blaney Tommy Baldwin Chevrolet 198 laps
Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Chevrolet 189 laps*
Jeff Gordon Hendrick Chevrolet 173 laps*
Brad Keselowski Penske Dodge 166 laps
David Reutimann Waltrip Toyota 164 laps*
Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 160 laps*
Travis Kvapil Front Row Ford 153 laps
Andy Lally TRG Chevrolet 149 laps*
Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Ford 133 laps
Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Ford 126 laps
Jeff Burton Childress Chevrolet 92 laps
Marcos Ambrose Petty Ford 82 laps*
Robert Richardson Jr Front Row Ford 45 laps
Joe Nemechek NEMCO Toyota 29 laps
Michael Waltrip Waltrip Toyota 28 laps
Brian Keselowski K-Automotive Dodge 28 laps
Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 22 laps
JJ Yeley Chevrolet 10 laps
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