Kurt Busch weathered the storm.
Amidst chaos in the closing moments, Busch gained the lead with two laps left — for the first time of the day — and held on for his first-ever Daytona 500 victory February 26 at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch’s win highlighted a race that saw several top contenders head to the garage with early exits after wrecking. Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Danica Patrick all were unable to finish due to the crashes. There were nine cautions in the race.
Chase Elliott was locked into a tight battle down the stretch with Martin Truex Jr. and held a late lead, but he ran out of gas with just three laps to go. That’s when Busch capitalized, staying out of any trouble and crossing the finish line in his beat-up No. 41 car first.
Busch was an underdog in the race with 25-1 odds and started in the eighth spot. He passed Kyle Larson with two laps remaining and coasted past the checkered flag. Ryan Blaney had a late surge but ran out of gas and finished second. AJ Allmendinger was just behind him in third.
Here are the top 10 finishers at the Daytona 500:
1. Kurt Busch
2. Ryan Blaney
3. AJ Allmendinger
4. Aric Almirola
5. Paul Menard
6. Joey Logano
7. Kasey Kahne
8. Michael Waltrip
9. Matt DiBenedetto
10. Trevor Bayne
The victory was Kurt Busch’s 29th career win. He had five top-five finishes at Daytona before the victory, including placing second twice. He said that his rear-view mirror fell off his car with 30 laps to go, but it didn’t slow him down.
Here’s the full rundown of the finishing results in the race:
2017 Daytona 500 Results
1. Kurt Busch
2. Ryan Blaney
3. AJ Allmendinger
4. Aric Almirola
5. Paul Menard
6. Joey Logano
7. Kasey Kahne
8. Michael Waltrip
9. Matt DiBenedetto
10. Trevor Bayne
11. Brendan Gaughan
12. Kyle Larson
13. Martin Truex Jr.
14. Chase Elliott
15. Michael McDowell
16. Landon Cassill
17. Denny Hamlin
18. Cole Whitt
19. Austin Dillon
20. Elliott Sadler
21. Ryan Newman
22. Kevin Harvick
23. Joey Gase
24. Corey LaJoie
25. David Ragan
26. Jeffrey Earnhardt
27. Brad Keselowski
28. Jamie McMurray
29. Daniel Suarez
30. Ty Dillon
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
32. Clint Bowyer
33. Danica Patrick
34. Jimmie Johnson
35. Chris Buescher
36. D.J. Kennington
37. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
38. Kyle Busch
39. Erik Jones
40. Matt Kenseth
Click here for the complete race results with statistics.
Daytona 500 Video Highlights
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