The race featured the NASCAR debut of IZOD IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick.

Kyle Busch won the pole since he was the reigning Series champion from the 2009 season after Qualifying got rained out but it would be Tony Stewart who led the most laps and won the race after starting in 32nd position and it would be his 3rd Nationwide Series opener in a row and his 5th of the last 6 opening races.

In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races for ARCA, AMA Superbike, IMSA, SCCA, and Motocross.

The speedway is operated by NASCAR pursuant to a lease with the City of Daytona Beach on the property that runs until 2054.

But on lap 7, the second caution flew for the first of three big ones in the race that occurred in turn 2 taking out 8 cars.

Soon a six car breakaway occurred from the pack with Harvick leading Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, John Wes Townley, and Kyle Busch.

On lap 43, green flag pitstops began as Harvick gave up his lead to Kyle Busch.

With 31 to go, Stewart took the lead from Earnhardt Jr. With 29 to go, the biggest crash of the day occurred on the backstretch which would be the third and final big one of the race taking out 13 cars.

The cars involved were Mike Wallace, Jeff Green, Scott Riggs, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Tony Raines, Carl Edwards, Brendan Gaughan, Joe Nemechek, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.[4] The race was red flagged for about 15 minutes to clean up the mess.

On the final lap, a crash occurred in turns 3 and 4 between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski but no caution flew.

Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Justin Allgaier, and Brian Vickers rounded out the top 5 while Paul Menard, Joey Logano, James Buescher, Kasey Kahne, and Steve Wallace rounded out the top 10.