At the start, the pack began to form into tandems. Pole sitter Trevor Bayne led the first lap of the race with Parker Kligerman pushing him. On lap 4, the tandem of Bayne and Kligerman got split up and Tony Stewart took the lead with Danica Patrick behind him. But those two got split up as well which allowed Kyle Busch to take the lead with Matt Kenseth pushing him. On lap 6, Tony Stewart took the lead with Austin Dillon pushing her. On lap 7, Danica Patrick took the lead with Elliott Sadler pushing him. At the same time as soon as they crossed the line for lap 8, the first caution flew when Scott Lagasse Jr. got turned by Trevor Bayne through the tri-oval. The right front splitter of his car dug into the grass and damaged it to where Lagasse had to retire from the race. During the caution, Most of the field came down to pit for fuel except for leader Danica Patrick. The race would restart on lap 12. On the restart, Elliott Sadler took the lead with a push from his teammate Brian Vickers. On lap 18, Sadler and Vickers would successfully switch positions and Vickers was the new leader. On lap 23, Sadler would take the lead with a push from Kyle Busch. On lap 28, Brad Keselowski took the lead with a push from his teammate Sam Hornish Jr. On lap 30, Keselowski and Hornish switched and Hornish took the lead but would be passed 3 wide by Trevor Bayne and Kyle Busch with Busch taking the lead with Dale Earnhardt Jr. On lap 31, Danica Patrick's engine would give out causing her to retire. At the same time, the second caution would fly when Regan Smith got turned by Elliott Sadler in turn 4 and would save it not to spin back across the field. Rookie Juan Carlos Blum also spun afraid Smith would come across the track and he would spin to the inside and hit the inside wall. Blum would retire from the race. The race would restart on lap 36 with Kyle Busch leading with his teammate Matt Kenseth behind him. On lap 45, Busch and Kenseth would switch and Kenseth was the new leader. On lap 50, Justin Allgaier took the lead with Michael Annett. Kenseth would take it back the next lap after Allgaier and Annett got separated. On lap 58, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead with Kurt Busch pushing him after Kenseth and Kyle Busch switched positions. Kyle would take the lead on lap 60 when Junior and Kurt got separated. On lap 63, Kasey Kahne took the lead with Regan Smith. On lap 64, the third caution would fly for a 4 car crash in the tri-oval. It started when Mike Wallace went down to go infront of Michael Annett but turned across Annett's nose and turned down into Kurt Busch while Wallace also clipped Reed Sorenson and Sorenson spun up and collected Joe Nemechek in a chain reaction wreck and the four spun through the infield grass. Only Kurt Busch would retire from the race.
Final laps
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 50 laps to go on lap 71. Junior would take the lead with a push from rookie Kyle Larson. With 49 to go, Regan Smith attempted to take the lead with a push from Kyle Busch and Smith best Junior to the line and would get infront of Junior and Larson the next lap after the both of them got separated. With 40 to go, Brad Keselowski took the lead with a push from Trevor Bayne but both got separated and immeadietly Smith took the lead back. With 36 to go, the fourth caution flew when smoke poured out of Trevor Bayne's car. Fortunately for Bayne, his engine was fine but his driveshaft broke and had to go to the garage. Bayne would return but finished 19 laps down. Brad Keselowski won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 31 laps to go with rookie Alex Bowman behind him. With 30 laps to go, Matt Kenseth took the lead with push from his teammate Kyle Busch. With 29 to go, Brian Scott attempted to take the lead with Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott led that lap and was able to get infront of Kenseth and Busch the next lap. With 27 to go, Kenseth took the lead back. Scott took it back the next lap. With 24 to go, Kyle Larson took the lead with push from Parker Kligerman. Scott took it back the next lap. With 22 to go, Larson took the lead back after Scott and Hornish swapped but both Larson and his partner Kligerman swapped which allowed Kasey Kahne to take the lead. But Kahne was far ahead of the pack by himself with no partner and Eric McClure took the lead with rookie Nelson Piquet Jr. pushing him and McClure led that lap. But Piquet picked up Brad Keselowski as his drafting partner which left McClure all alone with no drafting help and Parker Kligerman took the lead with Kyle Larson with 21 to go. At the same time down the backstretch, Kyle Busch's engine blew up and caught on fire ending his day and bringing out the 5th caution of the race for oil on the track. During the caution a few laps later, Reed Sorenson's engine also blew which extended the caution. The race would restart with 14 laps to go with Kligerman in the lead. On the restart, Eric McClure took the lead but got passed immeadietly by Kligerman and Larson down the backstretch as he and his partner Nelson Piquet Jr. did not had drafting help after the car behind Piquet in Joe Nemechek jumped to the outside. With 11 laps to go, Elliott Sadler took the lead with pushing from Michael Annett. With 9 to go, Regan Smith took the lead with pushing from Brad Keselowski. With 6 to go, Tony Stewart took the lead with pushing from Sam Hornish Jr. but Smith would lead the lap as he beat Stewart to the line.
With 5 to go, the 6th caution flew for the first big one of the race in turn 1. Michael Annett went up to follow Austin Dillon but Annett turned Dillon into Elliott Sadler and both Dillon and Annett spun up the track into the outside wall causing the outside to stack up. During the wreck, Dillon was riding on the outside wall and took a couple of hard shots in the door from Kasey Kahne and Jeffrey Earnhardt in the process. Michael Annett also pounded the outside wall head on at about 170 miles per hour. The hit was so hard that Annett ended up going to the hospital. He was released later that day after suffering a bruised sternum from the wreck and would miss the next 8 races. Annett was replaced by Aric Almirola for the next race at Phoenix and Reed Sorenson for the next 7 races until Annett returned for Charlotte. [6] [7] [8] The wreck ended up collecting 13 cars. The cars involved were Elliott Sadler, Austin Dillon, Danny Efland, Kasey Kahne, Michael Annett, Hal Martin, Mike Bliss, Johanna Long, Jamie Dick, Jason White, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Matt Kenseth, and Joe Nemechek.
The wreck would set up a two lap sprint to the finish. On the restart, Tony Stewart took the lead with pushing from Sam Hornish Jr. On the last lap, Regan Smith took the lead with pushing from Brad Keselowski after Stewart and Hornish got separated. In turn 1, rookie Alex Bowman attempted to thread the needle in between Keselowski and Stewart as he got a massive push by Parker Kligerman but Keselowski just shut the door on them that almost spun Keselowski in the process and separated both of them as well. Stewart and Hornish were able to get back together and began to make ground on the Smith–Keselowski tandem. But both Stewart and Hornish weren't able to get close enough to make a challenge. Knowing this, Keselowski made an attempt for the win and got to Smith's outside going toward the tri-oval. Smith went to block but got turned by Keselowski into the outside wall ending his chances to win. Keselowski got hit in the rear by Hornish that turned Keselowski and caused a pile up that took out 14 cars and involved the whole pack except for Tony Stewart and Stewart won the race as the caution flew before he got there. During the wreck, Kyle Larson got hooked onto Keselowski's passenger door and this spun the both of them 90 degrees where Keselowski hit the outside wall drivers door first and Larson pointed towards the wall. At the same time, Larson got hit in the right rear by Brian Scott that lifted Larson's car off the ground and twirl in the air while he also got hit in the front while in the air by Justin Allgaier and Larson's car spun around and hit the crossover gate part of catch fence front first severing the whole front of the car including both wheels and the engine off while also destroying the whole crossover gate part of the fence and sending debris into the grand stands even toward the second level. Larson's impact was so fierce, the camera above the finish line started to shake. ESPN analyst Andy Petree even said the impact shook the booth where he was commentating the race for ESPN along with Allen Bestwick and Dale Jarrett. The engine and one of the wheels landed just short of the stands near the catch fencing. Larson got out uninjured as did the rest of the drivers. But there were multiple injuries in the grandstands from the wreck. A total of 28 people were injured with 2 in critical condition. But thankfully, there were no deaths. [9] [10] [11] The wreck involved Regan Smith, Brad Keselowski, Sam Hornish Jr., Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Robert Richardson Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Travis Pastrana, Parker Kligerman, Nelson Piquett Jr., Eric McClure, Brian Scott, Justin Allgaier, and Elliott Sadler. This was Stewart's 7th win at Daytona in the last 9 Nationwide Series openers tying him with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for most all time. Sam Hornish Jr., Alex Bowman, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Parker Kligerman rounded out the top 5 while Brian Scott, Justin Allgaier, Eric McClure, Robert Richardson Jr., and Travis Pastrana rounded out the top 10.
In the aftermath of the incident, Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway added cables and tethers to the crossover gates, with Daytona's being installed in time for the Sprint Cup Series' Coke Zero 400 in July. [12] The crash also resulted in a rule prohibiting teams from making consistent contact during drafting in turns ("locking bumpers") in turns at superspeedway circuits. [13]
The picture of Larson's car getting shredded by the catch fence remains as one of the most well-known and reproduced images in the sport's history.
