Daytona | Race Recap
These are the top 10 “survivors”
10 Scott Speed
9 Mike Bliss
8 Reed Sorenson
7 Kurt Busch
6 Carl Edwards
5 Jeff Burton
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3 Jeff Gordon
2 Kasey Kahne

Victory Lane

1 Points leader Kevin Harvick started on the pole due to qualifying being rained out. It’s Kevin’s second win of the season, the other coming at a plate track at Talladega. He increased his points lead to 212

Other Stories on the day

Kyle Busch came in for an unscheduled pitstop for a loose wheel on lap 30

There were tire issues for Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson

AJ Allmendinger went spinning and hit the inside wall

While leading Kyle Busch got turned into the wall hard by Juan Pablo Montoya as they seemed to cross over

David Ragan got loose and collected Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex Jr.

19 to go Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, and Matt Kenseth got caught up in a wreck

THE BIG ONE
12 to go there was a massive wreck, half of the field was taken out of this race

Cars involved 2, 42, 5, 77, 39, 09, 98, 82, 83, 9, 31, 20, 38, 7, 12, 47 , 48, 16, 14

The 5 of Mark Martin came to pit road in a ball of fire, the 48 crew helped him get out of the car as the flames were being put out. Mark is okay.

The incident happened when Kurt Busch got into the 31 of Jeff Burton and the field behind them checked up to try and avoid things up front.

Coming to get the white flag, another wreck involving Sam Hornish Jr. who led a bunch of laps in this race. Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch were also caught up.

Joe Gibbs Racing suffers heavy damage to all three cars

Check out the closing laps of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s emotional win driving a replica of the blue and yellow Wrangler #3 car that his dad drove back in the day.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/nascar/.element/swf/2.2/sect/video/nascar_embed.swf?context=nascar_viral&videoId=busch/2010/07/02/nns_day2_high_final.nascar

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR ire Service

(July 2, 2010)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Driving the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet in honor of his late father, Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a NASCAR Nationwide Series drought of almost four years in winning Friday night’s Subway Jalapeno 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Earnhardt’s emotional win was the result of a collaboration between owner Richard Childress, Teresa Earnhardt, JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports, which supplied the engine for the No. 3 car.

PHOTO CREDIT: CIA STOCK PHOTO

The victory, the 23rd of Earnhardt’s career, was his first in the series since Aug. 19, 2006, when he took the checkered flag at Michigan. It was his first points win in any of NASCAR’s top three series since June 15, 2008, when Earnhardt captured the Lifelock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, again at Michigan.

In a race that saw the debut of NASCAR’s new Nationwide Series car, Earnhardt held off runner-up Joey Logano and third-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled distance of 100 laps.

“I was so worried that I wasn’t going to win, ’cause nothing but a win would get it—for everybody,” Earnhardt said after getting hugs from Childress, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and a multitude of others in victory lane. “If we didn’t win, what a waste of time. …

“I worked hard to try to win, not only for daddy—I’m proud of him going to the Hall of Fame, and he would be proud of this, I’m sure—but just all these fans. I hope they enjoyed this. This is it—no more ‘3’ for me. That’s it.”

With a push from Justin Allgaier, Earnhardt took the lead for the first time on Lap 70, surging past Kyle Busch through Turns 1 and 2. On that same lap, NASCAR called a caution for debris on the backstretch. Pitting under the caution, Earnhardt retained his lead, thanks to a quick, problem-free stop by Earnhardt’s No. 88 Sprint Cup crew, which volunteered for the race.

Earnhardt held the top spot through Lap 96, when NASCAR threw a debris caution that set up a two-lap run to the finish. Earnhardt stayed out on old tires, as did seven other contending cars, but Busch, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Trevor Bayne and Ryan Newman came to the pits for tires under the yellow.

The strategy didn’t work for those drivers, as track position proved more beneficial that fresh rubber. Points leader Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick ran fourth and fifth, respectively, on old tires. Keselowski extended his margin in the standings to 277 points over second-place Edwards, who finished 11th Saturday.

But the day belonged to Earnhardt.

“It’s emotional,” he said. “I’m proud of myself. I’m proud to have done what I did with this group.”

Childress, who won six Sprint Cup championships as Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s car owner, told Earnhardt Jr. his father would have been proud.

“He just said that daddy would have been happy, real happy,” Earnhardt said. “And who would know better than him?”

1 29 Kevin Harvick Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet
2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet
3 18 Kyle Busch Interstate Batteries Toyota
4 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota
5 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet
6 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite/Vortex Dodge
7 17 Matt Kenseth Jeremiah Weed Ford
8 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet
9 14 Tony Stewart Burger King Chevrolet
10 16 Greg Biffle 3M Scotch-Brite Ford
11 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST Auto Parts/GoDaddy.com
12 99 Carl Edwards SUBWAY Ford
13 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard 8 Soldiers & 8 Missions/AMP
14 39 Ryan Newman Tornados Chevrolet
15 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet
16 20 Joey Logano Home Depot Toyota
17 1 Jamie McMurray Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet
18 56 Martin Truex Jr. NAPA Toyota
19 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota
20 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser/Armed Forces Tribute Ford
21 43 A J Allmendinger Paralyzed Veterans of America/Mission: Able
22 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet
23 98 Paul Menard Quaker State/Menards Ford
24 83 Reed Sorenson Red Bull Toyota
25 6 David Ragan UPS Ford
26 12 Brad Keselowski No. 12 Penske Dodge Dodge
27 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Toyota
28 47 Marcos Ambrose Kingsford/Bush Baked Beans Toyota
29 19 Elliott Sadler Air Force Ford
30 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Mobil 1 Dodge
31 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet
32 7 Robby Gordon SpeedFactory.TV Toyota
33 34 Kevin Conway # Extenze Ford
34 37 Robert Richardson Jr. Mahindra USA Tractors Ford
35 71 Mike Bliss TaxSlayer.com/TRG Chevrolet
36 26 * David Stremme Air Guard/gtwgps.com Ford
37 09 * Bobby Labonte Coke Zero Chevrolet
38 38 * Travis Kvapil Long John Silver’s Ford
39 36 * Steve Park Richie Evans Fan Tribute Chevrolet
40 13 * Max Papis GEICO Toyota
41 46 * J J Yeley Cash America Dodge
42 87 * Joe Nemechek HostGator.com Toyota
43 66 * Dave Blaney PRISM Motorsports Toyota

1 22 Brad Keselowski Discount Tire Dodge
2 26 Parker Kligerman # Discount Tire Dodge
3 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wrangler Chevrolet
4 12 Justin Allgaier Verizon Wireless Dodge
5 18 Kyle Busch NOS Loaded Cherry Toyota
6 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. # Blackwell Angus Beef Ford
7 88 Greg Sacks GT Vodka Chevrolet
8 1 Ryan Newman Komatsu Chevrolet
9 33 Kevin Harvick Rheem Swimming Pool Heaters Chevrolet
10 20 Joey Logano SportClips Toyota
11 60 Carl Edwards Copart Ford
12 99 Trevor Bayne Out! Toyota
13 21 Clint Bowyer Zaxby’s Chevrolet
14 98 Paul Menard Libman/Menards Ford
15 7 Steve Arpin WOW! Foods Chevrolet
16 70 Shelby Howard Foretravel Chevrolet
17 15 Michael Annett Germain.com Toyota
18 16 Brian Ickler Con-way Ford
19 62 Brendan Gaughan South Point Hotel & Casino Toyota
20 38 Jason Leffler Great Clips Toyota
21 09 Ken Schrader RAB Racing Ford
22 56 Kevin Lepage Race Day Sponsor Toyota
23 11 Brian Scott # Great Clips Toyota
24 05 David Starr Cash America/31W Insulation Chevrolet
25 10 Tayler Malsam Iron Horse Jeans Toyota
26 01 Mike Wallace G&K Services Chevrolet
27 66 Steve Wallace 5-hour Energy Toyota
28 40 Mike Bliss Westerman Companies Chevrolet
29 24 Eric McClure Hefty Odor Block Ford
30 07 Danny Efland Proactiv Chevrolet
31 81 Michael McDowell MacDonald Motorsports Dodge
32 32 Reed Sorenson Dollar General Stores Toyota
33 73 Derrike Cope Hell Yeah/Charter Dodge
34 35 Jason Keller TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet
35 87 Joe Nemechek HostGator.com Chevrolet
36 04 Jeremy Clements Boudreaux’s Butt Paste Chevrolet
37 89 Morgan Shepherd Victory in Jesus Racing Chevrolet
38 34 Tony Raines Long John Silver’s Chevrolet
39 23 Robert Richardson Jr. R3 Motorsports Chevrolet
40 43 Johnny Chapman Baker Curb Racing Chevrolet
41 27 Jennifer Jo Cobb Driver Boutique Ford
42 28 Kenny Wallace Outshyne Chevrolet
43 49 Mark Green Numblets Chevrolet