Jeffrey Earnhardt made NASCAR history when he became the first ever fourth generation driver to compete in the Daytona 500.

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

[16] All three of NASCAR's main national series adopted a new race format and points system for the 2017 season.

A competition caution is held at the end of the first and second stage, and bonus championship points are awarded to the top 10 drivers.

The leader at the end of each stage, including the overall winner, also receives points that are carried over into their total if they qualify for the season-ending playoffs (renamed from the Chase for the Championship).

[20][21][22] Other technical changes took place for the 2017 season and Daytona 500, including having one fewer set of tires available for the race,[23] teams being required to start the race with the same tires used in qualifying,[23] restrictor plate size openings reduced from 57⁄64 inch (23 mm) to 7⁄8 inch (22 mm),[24] and new structural safety features—some of which are specifically mandated at Daytona and Talladega.

Chase Elliott held off late charges in the closing laps to win the first Can-Am Duel race.

[28] Restarting with eight laps to go, the Fords of Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski formed a line on the top side to make a charge at him.

He said in victory lane that he certainly thought he had a chance of winning on Sunday and that if he "didn't feel that way...I'd stay home.

[32] Hamlin received a push from Austin Dillon and faked Earnhardt out on the backstretch to pass him going into Turn 3 to win the second Duel race.

I'll keep that in mind in the 500....I can't thank this team enough for a great job by Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief).

[37] Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 45.351 seconds and a speed of 198.452 mph (319.378 km/h).

Earnhardt was caught in the middle of the inside and outside lines with no draft help, also known as the "sucker hole," and fell back through the pack on the fourth lap.

Erik Jones overshot his pit box and Daniel Suárez was hit with a pass through penalty for speeding.

Matt Kenseth came down pit road a second time for a loose wheel; a result of flat-spotting his tires on his first stop.

Kurt Busch restarted the race from the tail end of the field for speeding on pit road.

Truex followed likewise the next lap, powering by Busch on the top line going into Turn 1 to take the lead.

Rounding Turn 3 on lap 105, Busch's car suffered either a left or right-rear tire blowout, then spun towards the wall and into Jones, Kenseth and Ty Dillon, causing a 6-car pileup.

I tried to get the wheel turned and get down the race track but I lifted off the gas to miss it, and got on the splitter a little bit and the car went straight.

Elliott Sadler was the leader when the race resumed under caution, but surrendered the lead to Harvick when he hit pit road.

Kyle Larson took the position for a brief moment, but Elliott powered by on the outside line and retook the lead on lap 126.

Exiting Turn 4, he started decelerating to dive onto pit road when Sadler swerved up the track to avoid him.

Heading down the backstretch, McMurray, in the top line, tried passing to the inside of Elliott, but his advance was blocked.

Suárez swerved to the left to avoid a t-bone collision with McMurray, only to collide with Ryan Newman.

We had just pitted and were running really good, right up at the front where we needed to be in contention for a solid finish and hopefully a win.

[56] "There is nothing predictable about this race anymore and the more years that have gone by that I didn't win I kept trying to go back to patterns that I had seen in the past," Busch said in victory lane.

"[58] Blaney, who scored a career-best finish of runner-up despite running out of gas on the final lap, said he "tried to make a move with 10 to go and I didn't go anywhere.

The booth crew consisted of longtime NASCAR lap-by-lap announcer Mike Joy, three–time Daytona 500 champion Jeff Gordon, and 1989 race winner Darrell Waltrip.

Pit road was manned by Jamie Little, Chris Neville, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum.

The booth crew consisted of longtime announcer Joe Moore, Jeff Striegle and 1989 Cup Series champion Rusty Wallace.