Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Clint Bowyer held off Kyle Busch and Carl
Edwards in a green-white-checkered finish to win Friday's Subway Jalapeno 250
and record his first victory at Daytona International Speedway.
Bowyer, the 2008 series champion, ran in front when a four-car accident
occurred just before the leaders crossed the line for the final lap of the
two-lap overtime finish. The Richard Childress Racing driver had the dominant
car, as he started on the pole and led a race-high 48 laps.
"I can't begin to tell you what this place means to me, my family, everything
you ever worked for to come to Daytona, let alone win a race here," Bowyer
said. "This is the best place to come see a race, and people got their money
worth tonight."
Bowyer led the way on the final restart and got a big push from Busch to help
him fend off a challenge from Edwards on the second to last lap.
"Kyle gave me a good push there at the end, and luckily the caution came out,
because who knows what would have happened on that last lap," Bowyer added.
Last year, Bowyer won the spring race at Bristol for his only victory during
his championship season. The Richard Childress Racing driver is running a
limited schedule in the series this year.
Busch moved ahead of Edwards just before the race-ending caution to take
second. He increased his lead to 172 points over Edwards, who came in third.
"We're proud of that second-place effort, that was the best we had," Busch
said. "Clint's car was better than ours today."
Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-five.
Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers, Justin Allgaier, David Ragan and Kevin Harvick
finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Kertus Davis was among several drivers who crashed in the closing laps, which
set up the overtime finish. Davis' car erupted into flames while he tried to
nurse it back to the pits after the incident. He quickly exited the car and
suffered no injuries.
Kerry Earnhardt's car also engulfed in fire and smoke after he was involved in
an incident with Chase Austin in the late-stages. Earnhardt was not hurt, but
did suffer smoke inhalation.
"I hit (Jeff Green) and (Austin) both and then hit the wall and had a little
bit of a fire, so I had a little inhalation of the fire and fumes," Earnhardt
said.
Earlier in the race, Earnhardt and Donnie Neuenberger crashed after making
contact on lap 10, forcing the first caution and then setting up a double-file
restart. One month after the Sprint Cup Series began using the double-file
restarts throughout each race, NASCAR instituted the new restart format for
its second-tier division, beginning at Daytona.