Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took the lead in overtime to earn the second victory of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.
With the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway going past its advertised conclusion of 160 laps, David Ragan led the field to the green flag. Heading down the backstretch, he made the move to the high line, leaving the bottom open for Stenhouse to swoop down and pass him to drive onto victory.
Clint Bowyer came home second and Paul Menard rounded out the podium.
Michael McDowell and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five.
Ragan, Brendan Gaughan, AJ Allmendinger, Erik Jones and Chris Buescher rounded out the top-10.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the field to the green flag at 7:58 p.m. He wouldn’t lead the first lap, however. That honor went to teammate Chase Elliott, who passed him in Turn 3.
Elliott dropped to the bottom and let Brad Keselowski pass him without a fight on the sixth lap.
Caution flew for the first time on lap 10 when Cole Whitt lost an engine.
It flew again on lap 16 when DJ Kennington lost an engine and spun out in Turn 4.
Keselowski and Kevin Harvick battled for the lead, which Earnhardt joined in around lap 31 through 35, before Keselowski took the lead for good on lap 38 and won the first stage.
With Erik Jones now leading, who elected not to pit, the race resumed action on lap 47. Denny Hamlin took the lead from him on lap 49.
The following lap, Daniel Suarez and McDowell made contact exiting Turn 4. Rather than merge back into line, the two drivers chose to dive full speed down pit road — using it as an escape route, which NASCAR allows drivers to due to avoid a wreck or avoid causing one — and rejoin the pack on the other side.
Caution flew a lap later when Dale Earnhardt Jr. slammed the wall in Turn 1.
Caution flew again on lap 59 when Jeffrey Earnhardt suffered an engine failure.
The first Big One of the night occurred on lap 71 for a 10-car incident in Turn 2.
The second stage was largely dominated by Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, with Kenseth winning the second stage.
Gaughan brought out the seventh caution on lap 90 when he hit the wall in Turn 2.
The next caution flew for Elliott and Trevor Bayne spinning out on the backstretch on lap 98.
The second Big One happened on lap 106.
The next two cautions were for a Kasey Kahne solo spin and a shredded tire from Matt DiBenedetto’s car.
Three laps after the restart with 28 laps to go, Suarez goes to the outside of Stenhouse to take the lead.
From 22 to 20 to go, Suarez and Kahne raced side-by-side for the lead, with Kahne gaining the upper hand with 19 to go. Stenhouse side-drafted Kahne down the backstretch to retake the lead with 11 to go. Ty Dillon snuck his way into the lead with eight to go.
Caution flew for the 13th time with eight to go for a multi-car wreck that resulted in Kyle Larson’s car going airborne and Kurt Busch slamming the wall head-on in the tri-oval.
Back to green with three to go, Dillon had no draft help and Ragan got an excellent push past him going into Turn 1.
A multi-car spin on the backstretch brought out the 14th caution and set up the run to the finish.
The race lasted three hours, 17 minutes and 12 seconds at an average speed of 123.986 mph. There were 33 lead changes among 16 different drivers and 14 cautions for 51 laps.
Larson leaves with an 18-point lead over Truex.
C1717_UNOFFRES
