Contested over 168 laps—extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish with two attempts for the first time since 2011, on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) superspeedway, it was the 18th race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Erik Jones scored his first career win in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and for the first time in a decade, Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing had won a July race at Daytona.

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.

His banked design permitted higher speeds and gave fans a better view of the cars.

Lights were installed around the track in 1998 and today, it is the third-largest single lit outdoor sports facility.

The project, named "Daytona Rising", was completed in January 2016, and it cost 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.

Clint Bowyer was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 44.821 seconds and a speed of 200.799 mph (323.155 km/h).

Brad Keselowski won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 47.

The cars involved were Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Ty Dillon, Clint Bowyer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suárez, Paul Menard, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Jimmie Johnson, Alex Bowman, Kasey Kahne, Corey LaJoie, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ross Chastain, Matt DiBenedetto, and Michael McDowell.

But Stenhouse went up the track in turns 3 and 4 and ended up clipping Kyle Busch in the left rear causing a chain reaction where Busch spun down into Byron's right rear and both went up the track triggering the second big one out of turn 4 that collected 7 cars including Jamie McMurray, Trevor Bayne, Erik Jones, and Corey LaJoie.

During pitstops, Ricky Stenhouse Jr's crew decided to work on the right front fender after he caused the crash involving Kyle Busch and William Byron and they would lose the lead and fall back to 14th on the restart.

Unfortunetly for Johnson, he got a penalty for pitting outside the box which gave the lead to the car behind him Martin Truex Jr. On the same lap, the 6th caution flew when Kyle Larson blew a right rear tire in turn 3 and collected Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who just pitted.

But with 5 laps to go, the 9th caution would fly for a four car crash after Joey Gase got loose and came up and collected Michael McDowell and Aric Almirola into the outside wall while Jimmie Johnson spun to avoid the wreck.

The cars involved were Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Bubba Wallace, Jimmie Johnson, Ross Chastain, Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brendan Gaughan, and Alex Bowman.

Dave Burns, Parker Kligerman, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.