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When the Coke Zero 400 had run its course, at close to 3 on Monday morning, all the weary Sprint Cup teams loaded up the cars, most of them damaged and some destroyed, for the long drive home, knowing they would have to get ready again for testing and then a race in Kentucky next weekend.

Big One? Daytona International Speedway had four of them in its rain-delayed summer classic, and even though 29 cars finished, most of them were ill-equipped to race again any time soon.

The most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won, and the most successful, Jimmie Johnson, finished second, and yet the overriding emotion, even for the winner, wasn't joy. It was relief.

Earnhardt had already crossed the finish line when all the leftover hell broke loose. He watched it in the rear-view mirror and took the same deep breath as everyone else.

Austin Dillon finished seventh the hard way. Kevin Harvick's Chevrolet bumped Denny Hamlin's Toyota. Harvick said he was trying to help, but what the chain reaction wound up helping was Dillon's No. 3 taking flight and slamming the catch fence at a harsh angle. The car didn't keep flying into the crowded grandstands, but debris did. Miraculously, Dillon walked away, and none of the 13 fans who couldn't avoid it was injured seriously.

Earnhardt said he was "on the verge of tears." Johnson likened the fence to a cheese grater for race cars. Sixth-place Jeff Gordon said it was "literally like a video game ... except for it's real life."

Trevor Bayne, ninth, said, "There at the end, off (turn) four, everybody was trying to go everywhere."

Landon Cassill, 13th, said, "You just can't drive over the left-rear of people. They wreck every time." Brian Scott, after crashing in both of the weekend's races, said simply, "Daytona happened."

Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, 22nd, said, "There isn't much good to say about what happened. It is a product of the racing here.

"That isn't the first time that has happened here, and it is just dumb that we allow it to happen more than once."

While Earnhardt was a popular winner, it wasn't a popular race.