His teammate Jimmie Johnson finished second while Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five.

The race was marred by a violent crash at the finish, most notably featuring Austin Dillon's car flipping into the outside catch fence.

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

The track was built in 1959 by NASCAR founder William "Bill" France, Sr. to host racing held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course.

The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, at a cost of US $400 million, placing emphasis on improving fan experience with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances (called "injectors") as well as wider and more comfortable seating with more restrooms and concession stands.

During the Xfinity Series' Alert Today Florida 300 earlier in the year, a crash occurred in which Kyle Busch slammed into a concrete wall just past the exit to pit road, breaking his leg and sidelining him for the first eleven races of the Sprint Cup season.

In response to the accident, the entire outer wall of the race track was fitted with SAFER barriers.

The move also removed a potential conflict with NBC's annual Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular special.

[18] Ten minutes into the session, Brad Keselowski made contact with Kyle Busch and sent him spinning in the middle of the pack.

[19] Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Sam Hornish Jr., Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. were all collected in the wreck.

[20] Two rounds of single-car qualifying were scheduled to take place on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, but were cancelled due to rain.

It ended up working out for us.”[21] "This track has been very special to me, we know how important is to the sport," said Jeff Gordon, who'll start 23rd in his 46th and final career race at Daytona.

[23] When qualifying is rained out, NASCAR's rules state that the number of attempts a race team has made determines the starting lineup before practice times.

This one got us, but if it has to happen, I’d rather it be for something we can’t control instead of for a lack of performance on our part.”[23] The race was scheduled to begin at 8:04 p.m. EDT on Sunday, but was delayed by rain that had been falling all afternoon.

[27] Michael Annett, Greg Biffle, Sam Hornish Jr., Bobby Labonte, reigning Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, and Danica Patrick were also collected in the melee.

[27] A. J. Allmendinger, Annett, Biffle, Jeb Burton, Brendan Gaughan, Gilliland, Hornish Jr., Logano, and Patrick were tagged for pitting before pit road was open and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field, although this was moot as they were going to restart at the rear of the field anyway as they had all taken on crash damage.

Biffle and Kyle Busch were tagged for having too many crew members over the wall to service the car and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field.

Casey Mears was tagged for driving through more than three pit boxes getting to his stall and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field.

Annett was tagged for having too many crew members over the wall to service the car and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field.

Kyle Busch and Dillon were tagged for too many crew members over the wall to service the car and restarted the race from the tail-end of the field.

[32] "I was following Jeff Gordon up through there and he got shuffled out and I kind of committed to him and we started moving back up there pretty good," Almirola said.

The seventh caution of the race flew with 33 laps to go when Patrick cut a right front tire in turn 2 and hit the outside wall.

The eighth caution of the race flew with twelve laps to go when Ragan got loose and turned down into the backstretch grass.

"[33] As the field raced to the checkered flag, Harvick tapped Hamlin from behind, instigating a massive wreck involving at least 24 cars.

In the resulting chaos, Dillon's car struck Hamlin at such an angle that it flipped and flew over two lanes in the air into the catch fence, ripping out the engine.

Dillon's car landed back on the track upside down, coming to a rest at the exit to the pit road, and was then hit again by Keselowski, who spun in oil while trying to avoid the crash.

The impact was similar to Bobby Allison's 1987 Winston 500, Geoff Bodine's 2000 Daytona 250, Carl Edwards 2009 Aaron's 499, and Kyle Larson's 2013 DRIVE4COPD 300 wrecks.

Upon coming to a stop, Dillon was helped out of his car by Earnhardt's and Mears's pit crews to loud cheers, and walked away.

Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast handled pit road for the television side.

Alex Hayden, Winston Kelley and Steve Post worked pit road for the radio side.