NASCAR drivers started the season off in the Great American Race, but could not avoid the big wreck in the action packed event. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the event in qualifying, but had to go to the back after wrecking his car.

The green flag drops and in a few laps the first caution comes out as Michael Waltrip helps spin out Kyle Busch. After another short green flag run we got into caution 2 on lap 11 as J.J. Yeley slows and smokes up big time. Drivers did not see the caution and Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets wobbly with help from Martin Truex Jr. and his car.

We get another short green flag run and lap 22 sees the caution for Kevin Harvick as his engine just blows up. Robby Gordon checked up which caused Jeff Gordon to hit him in the back.

Then the unavoidable big one occurs as Michael Waltrip who wounds up helping take out David Reutimann. They all wind up crashing the cars of Brian Keselowski, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Travis Kvapil, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Andy Lally, and Marcos Ambrose.

Michael Waltrip stated that David Reutimann wanted to go low over the radio. David Reutimann stated that he did not know what happened to cause the wreck. "Got caught in the mess," said Marcos Ambrose.

"Just waiting for it to thin out," said Jeff Gordon who was not happy about the racing at the time of the wreck.

This finally led to something of a good green run, but at lap 47 Robert Richardson got spun out.

Getting to lead the race in the first 50 laps included Jamie McMurray, Clint Boyer, A.J. Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Paul Menard, Juan Pablo Montoya, and more...

In the next 50 laps only two cautions came out. One at lap 57 for Brian Vickers who stalled out tring to get the wall and one at lap 77 for Travis Kvapil that spins out.

Lap 93 though saw Jeff Burton and his motor go dead ending his day. "We ran well all week," said Jeff Burton.
In these 50 laps Regan Smith, Kasey Kahne, Robby Gordon, Kurt Busch, and more led the race.

The next caution comes out at lap 106 as Juan Pablo Montoya spins out, but fully saves his car. In the next green flag run Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. led some laps.

With 77 laps though left Travis Kvapil helps bring out the next caution. With 70 laps left Bobby Labonte and his car slows up big time, but was okay. At this time it was Clint Bower and Paul Menard up front. A few more laps go by and Greg Biffle helps send Matt Kenseth hard into the wall. "Our car was pretty beat up." said Matt Kenseth.

With 60 laps left the green flag dropped with Martin Truex Jr. leading the race with Trevor Bayne pushing him. The caution though comes out with 58 laps left as Greg Biffle and Juan Pablo Montoya crash. This caution tied the most cautions ever for the Daytona 500 race.

After the green flag dropped again Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading laps with help from Reagan Smith. With 47 laps left Denny Hamlin pushed Ryan Newman into the lead of the race. With 43 laps left it was caution time again for Travis Kvapil who hit the wall.

The green flag drops with Denny Hamlin leading laps as Ryan Newman pushes him. In a few laps Brad Keselowski crashes into the wall. He goes down the tracks and hits Joey Logano who then spins out Regan Smith.

The green flag drops with 30 laps left and Dale Jr. with a hot restart got the lead of the race, but it did not last long and Ryan Newman was back in the lead. With 25 laps left Kurt Busch had the lead. At the end of the next lap Martin Truex Jr. got loose and had to go down pit road at full speed to save it.

With 19 laps left the caution popped out again as a tire blows on the Kasey Kahne car. The green flag drops with 15 laps left With Ryan Newman leading laps with Denny Hamlin pushing.

With 8 laps left the lead switched as Clint Bowyer got the lead of the race. He did not have it long and Regan Smith got the lead as he got pushed from Kurt Busch. With 4 laps left David Ragan was in the lead. Regan Smith wound up with a small gap. Then Tony Stewart hits Kurt Busch with enough force to send Regan Smith crashing into Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer. Denny Hamlin also picked up damage from this mess.

This brought out the green/white checker finish. David Ragan gets a penalty for changing lanes before the start/finish line on the restart. Tony Stewart gets a heads of steam, but winds up getting taking over. He gets down low, but was not fast enough and gets hit from behind from Robby Gordon. Behind all that Dale Jr. winds up wrecking with Ryan Newman to bring out the caution.

The green flag drops with Trevor Bayne leading with a push from Bobby Labonte. On the final lap David Gilliand was pushing big time Carl Edwards and got all the way to the leaders. Trevor went low to block Carl Edwards as he went on to win his first Sprint Cup race. The wins marks on the second time ever that a driver in his first Daytona 500 start to win the race.

"I don't even know where to go," said Trevor over the radio.

"This is just incredible," said Trevor in victory lane.

"We run good," said Dale Eanrhardt Jr. who finished 24th. Shame we couldn't get a good finish for them.

Carl Edwards stated that Trevor was a cool guy. "Wild Daytona 500 guys."

"Take a long time to get over this one," said David Ragan. "Hard lesson to learn."