Dale Earnhardt Jr., driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the race, making this his second Daytona 500 victory breaking a 55-race winless streak.

Denny Hamlin finished 2nd, while Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the Top 5.

The top rookies of this race were polesitter Austin Dillon (9th), Alex Bowman (23rd), and Brian Scott (25th).

[18] The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.

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

Ryan Newman was the fastest in the second practice session later that day with a time of 46.072 and a speed of 195.346 mph (314.379 km/h).

Rookie Austin Dillon won the pole position with a lap time of 45.914 and a speed of 196.019 mph (315.462 km/h), while Martin Truex Jr. was second.

During the session, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth made contact, which sent rookie Parker Kligerman into the catchfence and caused his car to land on its roof.

As a result, Logano, Kligerman, Menard and Ryan Truex had to switch to backup cars for the Budweiser Duels.

[29] Martin Truex Jr. led the field to the green flag at 8:40 p.m., and Brad Keselowski took the lead on lap 3.

[28] Coming through turn four on the final lap, Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas, got loose after being tapped in the left corner panel, overcorrected and hit the wall collecting Jamie McMurray in the process.

While slowing to avoid the wreck, Clint Bowyer got rear-ended by Ryan Truex, slid to the runoff area taking David Ragan with him.

McMurray made contact with Johnson again as they continued on into the grass, destroying the front ends of their cars.

[28] Denny Hamlin was the fastest in the fourth practice session on February 19 with a time of 45.096 and a speed of 199.574 mph (321.183 km/h).

Kurt Busch was the fastest in the final practice session on February 22 with a time of 45.541 and a speed of 197.624 mph (318.045 km/h).

While the field was under caution, it began to rain and by lap 39, the red flag was thrown with Kyle Busch leading the race.

[31] After the red flag was lifted, the race ran seven laps under caution while the Air Titan did a pass over pit road.

During green flag pit stops around lap 85, Trevor Bayne, Aric Almirola, A. J. Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Michael Waltrip and Danica Patrick briefly held the lead for a couple laps at a time due to different pit strategies.

Almirola shot across the track and collected several more cars including Patrick, Waltrip, Parker Kligerman, Paul Menard, David Gilliland, Josh Wise, Austin Dillon, Justin Allgaier, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose.

It occurred when Kyle Larson spun in turn 4 from contact with Dillon, causing major damage to several more cars including Marcos Ambrose, Kahne, Annett, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Brian Scott, Brian Vickers and Casey Mears.

On lap 184, the fifth caution flag came out when Bayne's car snapped loose and crashed into the outside wall on the back straightaway.

Although close on fuel and with a piece of bear bond from Newman's car stuck to his grill, Earnhardt Jr. took off on the last restart, moving in front of Jeff Gordon.

Over the course of the last lap, an intense battle for the runner-up spots unfolded between Gordon, Hamlin, Johnson and Keselowski.

Heading through turn 4, Harvick tried to force himself between McMurray and Kyle Busch in turn 4, and a wreck ensued as Harvick was sent into the wall, collecting a number of other cars including McMurray, Busch, Edwards, and Reed Sorenson.

While that was happening, Earnhardt Jr. held off Hamlin and took the caution and checkered flags to score his second Daytona 500 victory.

When Fox showed Jimmie Johnson's winning moment from the 2013 race, he received a large number of congratulatory tweets.