Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored the NASCAR win at Daytona, but all eyes were on Austin Dillon’s destroyed car after a scary wreck at the finish line in the Coke Zero 400.

Rain in Daytona, Florida delayed the start of the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola by more than three hours. The green flag waved at Daytona International Speedway at the time somebody should have been celebrating the win had things started on time.

With a late night start at around 11:30 PM Eastern Time in Daytona, the track was green and would have plenty of grip for the drivers that lined up for the start based on speeds from the first Sprint Cup practice because qualifying was rained out.

Dale Jr. started the race from the pole position and was the talk of the garage all weekend as the car to beet in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. It did not take long for him to prove that talk was spot on. The #88 Chevrolet was one of 12 cars to lead the race and exchange that lead 22 times during the race. In the end it was Dale Jr. that dominated the race leading a race high 96 laps. The next closest in laps led was Jimmie Johnson who was out front for 35 laps.

The Coke Zero was not without incident through the race as there were nine caution periods (one a competition caution set by NASCAR at lap 27) that kept the field following the pace car for 43 laps. However, it was the crash that did not receive a yellow flag that had everybody holding their collective breath.

The Coke Zero 400 went to a green-white-checkered finish following an accident on lap 156 of the scheduled 160 lap race. Dale Jr. led the field to the green flag for the re-start and held the lead to take the white flag to indicate one lap left.

The final lap had the cars racing at 200 mph inches apart and trying to find a way to challenge the #88 for the win. As the cars approached the finish line and Dale Jr. took the checkered flag for the win, the #4 Chevrolet pushed on the back, left corner of the #11 Toyota sliding it sideways on the track.

The result of that incident was the cars behind those to cars at the front of the field began wrecking and sliding in every direction. As the #11 came back across the track it hit the #3 Chevrolet driven by Austin Dillon and sending it airborne. The #3 flew over the two rows of cars to the outside side of the track and into the catch fence that circles the speedway.

The fence caused the #3 car to go from around 200 mph to an instant stop in the air and tore the car to pieces before it came back down to the track. When the car came to a rest on the track on its roof, it was missing the engine and most of the body. Amazingly Austin was able to climb out of the car, waive to the cheering fans and walk to the ambulance.

The win is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s second of the 2015 NASCAR season. Jimmie Johnson took home the second place finish. Even spinning sideways, Deny Hamlin was able to score third place with Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch finishing in fourth and fifth place respectively.  By the way, Austin Dillon was credited as crossing the finish line in seventh place. See the complete Coke Zero 400 race results here.

Kevin Harvick remains the lead in the point standings as Dale Jr. jumps up three spots to second place following his Daytona win. Jimmie Johnson moves up a spot to third while Joey Logano slips back a spot to fourth place. Martin Truex Jr. falls back three spots to fifth place in the points. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

Since Dale Jr. already had a win for the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, this week there was not a new person punching their ticket to the Chase on the Chase Grid. There was some shuffling on the Chase Grid following the Coke Zero 400 including Dale Jr. climbing up to the third seed behind Jimmie Johnson at number one with four wins and Kevin Harvick as the number two seed with two wins. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Grid as it stands after the race at Daytona here.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads to Kentucky Speedway next. The Quaker State 400 will take place under the lights Saturday night, July 11th. Let’s hope all the cars finish on their wheels this week.

By: Buck Stevens