As Joey Logano cruised to his first Daytona 500 win Jeff Gordon got bumped and spun finishing 33rd in his final Daytona 500.

Logano was able to cruise because NASCAR waved the yellow flag after a wreck halfway back to the checkered flag. The wreck involved Jeff Gordon.

“I can't believe it,” said Logano after exiting his Ford in Victory Lane, “This is absolutely amazing. The Daytona 500 – Oh my God! This is unbelievable. THE DAYTONA 500!"

As Joey Logano cruised to his first Daytona 500 win Jeff Gordon got bumped and spun finishing 33rd in his final Daytona 500.

Logano was able to cruise because NASCAR waved the yellow flag after a wreck halfway back to the checkered flag. The wreck involved Jeff Gordon.

“I can't believe it,” said Logano after exiting his Ford in Victory Lane, “This is absolutely amazing. The Daytona 500 – Oh my God! This is unbelievable. THE DAYTONA 500!"

From a restart on Lap 182 of a scheduled 200, fans standing—not sitting—in a packed front grandstand were treated to 16 straight laps of close-quarters, three-wide racing that saw the lead change from one lap to the next, as one line or another would inch ahead.

The final two-lap sprint, on the other hand, was no contest. Logano picked the outside lane for the restart on Lap 202 and surged ahead of second-place Jimmie Johnson when the bottom lane didn’t move as quickly as expected.

Kevin Harvick was second when NASCAR threw the final caution and froze the field. Defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. charged from eighth to third before the yellow. Denny Hamlin ran fourth, followed by Johnson.

When reminded his win makes him the first driver qualified for the Sprint Cup Chase, Logano smiled even bigger.

Logano owed a special thank you to Clint Bowyer. Bowyer helped move him into position to win the race during the 16-lap green-flag run that preceded the sixth caution on Lap 198.

Logano’s victory also extended a remarkable four-race streak for Ford, which won the Rolex 24 Hours in January and swept the NASCAR weekend with triumphs in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Friday (Tyler Reddick) and NASCAR XFINITY Series on Saturday (Ryan Reed).

Earnhardt felt he had the strongest car in the field, but a mistake on the Lap 182 restart shuffled him from third all the way out of the top 15. For the balance of the race, the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet fought his way back toward the front but wasn’t in position to make a play for the win at the end.

Earnhardt had planned to tuck in behind Johnson, his teammate, after the restart, but didn’t have room to make the move.

“Jimmie was on the quarter panel ... he was in a great spot on the guy in front of me,” Earnhardt said. “And I thought if I could get in behind him, he was going to shoot past to the lead, I could tuck on the quarter panel a little bit as soon as I got on that right rear quarter panel.

“I didn't think they were that close on the outside line. I thought we had a couple car-lengths on the outside line, but they were right there. Just one of them moves. You make some good ones, you make some bad ones. I made a bad one too late.”

Harvick, the defending series champion, was philosophical about the runner-up finish.

“Yeah, definitely, for us it was a good, solid day to start the season,” Harvick said. “Obviously, you want to try to win the race. But sometimes you're just happy to keep rolling and going out of here and head to Atlanta (next Sunday) with a solid day.

“I thought we were going to have at least a chance, back up to the 88 there, come up to the 22 coming off of Turn 4. But in the end, that didn't all pan out with the caution. Still, a good weekend for us.”

Polesitter Jeff Gordon, racing in the Daytona 500 for the last time, was a victim of the wreck that brought out the final caution. Gordon dominated early, leading a race-high 87 laps, but the late wreck dropped him to 33rd at the finish.

“This was an amazing week and an amazing day,” Gordon said. “I’m just in a different place that is so foreign to me, but so incredible--to just be taking it all in and enjoying every moment.

“Yeah, right now I’m a little bit sad this is my final Daytona 500, but I’m more upset we didn’t have a shot at winning there at the end.”

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