Kurt Busch storms to Daytona 500 triumph

Kurt Busch has won a crash-filled Daytona 500 with a calculated drive to take the lead on the final lap of the race.

It is the first win in ‘The Great American Race’ and 29th of his career.

The victory came after Stewart-Haas Racing switched to Ford in the off-season.

The race included several big wrecks with two-thirds of the 40-car field suffering crash damage, including the race winner.

The first major crash occurred on lap #105 when Kyle Busch had a tyre let go in front of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones; who were all eliminated in the wreck. Ty Dillon and Elliott Saddler were able to continue.

Then another big wreck ended the hopes of Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Danica Patricks, Denny Hamlin, Trevor Bayne, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher and Ryan Newman amongst others in the 16-car incident.

The race seemed to be cursed for team-mates with Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crashing after fellow Ford driver Ryan Blaney slowed to come to the pitlane.

Then the final big wreck took out Jamie McMurray, Newman, Brad Kesolowski, Daniel Suarez, Hamlin and virtually the second half of the field on lap #142.

It set-up a long green flag run to the chequered flag with pole sitter and Duel race winner Chase Elliott holding onto the lead.

Then with three laps to run his car appeared to cough on fuel and the field swept by. Kurt Busch, who had been sitting in third, cleared his way to the front while others seemed to have nothing to match him. Despite the team believing he would not have enough fuel he powered-on and took the race win.

“I almost forgot to drive the line I was supposed to drive because I was shutting off all my switches, going to reserve fuel and saying a hail mary. It all turned out. Here we are in victory lane. I can’t believe it,” said Kurt Busch.

“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.

“My mirror fell off with 30 laps to go and I couldn’t even see out the back. And I thought that was an omen. Throw caution to the wind. The more unpredictability that keeps unfolding at the Daytona 500, I predicted it.

“It just got crazy and wild and I am so proud of all the drivers at the end. We put on a show for a full fuel run and nobody took each other out and it was one of the smartest chess games I have seen out there.

“All the hard work that Ford and SHR put into this — this Ford Fusion is in Daytona’s victory lane.”

The race featured the new “Stages” where the first 60-lap segment was won by Kyle Bush, before Harvick took the second 60-lap run. The top-10 in each of those segments scored bonus points to the overall season total.

VIDEO: Race Finish

RESULTS: Daytona 500 – Daytona International Speedway

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