The 2018 Daytona 500, the 60th running of the event, was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on February 18, 2018, contested over 207 laps—extended from 200 laps due to an overtime finish—on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) asphalt superspeedway.

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

[22] Bubba Wallace was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 45.696 seconds and a speed of 196.954 mph (316.967 km/h).

The crash was triggered when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. attempted to block Ryan Blaney battling for second.

Stenhouse briefly lost control of his car before saving it, but the resulting slowdown led to Erik Jones spinning in front of the field and starting the wreck.

A total of nine cars was involved in the melee, including William Byron, Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Daniel Suárez, Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Larson.

A total of four cars were out of the race, including Jimmie Johnson, Daniel Suárez, Erik Jones, and Ty Dillon.

The fifth caution of the race came out for a seven-car wreck in turn 3 another (The Big One) involving Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick, David Ragan, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Kasey Kahne.

2017 Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch tried to pass Denny Hamlin but contact behind him triggered the melee.

A total of twelve cars were involved including Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Bubba Wallace, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Brendan Gaughan, and A. J. Allmendinger.

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, Regan Smith, Vince Welch and Matt Yocum.

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