The victory was the 61st of Johnson’s career in his 400th start in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and his second win in NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Earnhardt finished second for the third time in the last four Daytona 500s. Mark Martin ran third, followed by defending series champion Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman. Greg Biffle ran sixth and Regan Smith seventh.

Polesitter Danica Patrick came home eighth, the best-ever finish by a woman in the Daytona 500.

With tandem racing all but absent in the points race for the new Gen-6 race cars, passing was difficult and track position paramount.

“You can’t ride and wait for things to happen,” Johnson said. “You have to race all day long and fight for track position. This race car, this Lowe’s Chevrolet was so good. (Crew chief) Chad Knaus and all of Hendrick Motorsports had me a fast car, and I could really stay up front all day long. I had a lot of confidence in the final few laps leading the train, (because) I knew just how fast the car was.”

Earnhardt got a strong push from Martin on the last lap, but couldn’t catch Johnson off the final corner.

“I couldn’t have done much without Mark helping me here at the end,” said Earnhardt, who was fourth at the white flag. “I was hoping he was thinking what I was thinking as we come off of Turn 2 on that last lap. I felt like we needed to make the move a little earlier than off (Turn) 4.

“I kept backing up, backing up, trying not to let guys get racing behind us too much. If somebody ducked out of line a couple rows behind Mark, I was going to have a gap, (and) me and Mark could take off, not get hung up with those guys. Once we come off of 2, mashed the gas, got a run on Danica, side-drafted her a little bit.

“I don’t know why them guys didn’t pull down in front of me besides Jimmie, but we got through 3 and 4 with a pretty good run. Once we come to Turn 4, we kind of run out of steam, didn’t have enough to get a run on Jimmie.”

After a restart on Lap 182, following the fifth caution of the race for Jeff Burton’s hard contact with the outside wall at the entrance to the tri-oval, Keselowski and Johnson ran side-by-side at the front of the pack, trading the lead as their respective lanes gained momentum.

A caution for debris on Lap 192 set up the six-lap dash to the finish with Johnson in the lead in the outside lane.

Patrick made history when she led the field to green from the pole position. On Lap 90, she reached another milestone. Surging to the lead after a restart, she paced the field on Laps 90 and 91, and, in doing so, became the first female driver to lead a lap in the Daytona 500 and the first female to lead a green-flag Lap in the Cup series.

(Janet Guthrie led Laps 43 through 47 under caution in the Nov. 20, 1977, Los Angeles Times 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway, the only five laps she led in 33 career Cup starts.)

Later in the race, Patrick led three more laps, for a total of five, to tie Guthrie’s five.

Despite the success, Patrick was reluctant to reset expectations for her rookie season in the Cup series.

“I think that would be unwise to sort of start telling myself that top 10 is where we need to be every week,” said Patrick, who was third with one lap left but fell to eighth in the last-lap scramble. “I think that’s setting up for failure. The list of drivers in the Cup series is deep. This is a unique track. These (restrictor-plate) tracks are different and unique. (It’s) a lot about the car.

“I mean, you have to be smart enough to do the right thing at the right time, but it’s very much about the car. I feel like I’m still sticking to ‘Let’s see how these first five races go,’ where we go to a bunch of different kinds of tracks, see where we settle in, start to establish goals from there on out.”

The Toyota Camrys of Joe Gibbs Racing were running 1-2-3 as the race neared the three-quarter mark, with Matt Kenseth pacing Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. On Lap 150, however, Kenseth, who led four times for a race-high 86 laps, brought his car to pit road, having felt a vibration in the drive train. Busch parked his car two laps later, with a blown engine.

That left Hamlin at the point as the field ran single-file behind him, in a lull before the late-race pyrotechnics.

A nine-car accident on Lap 138, thinned an already depleted field. With most cars running single-file around the top of the track, Keselowski tapped David Reutimann and dropped abruptly to the apron in Turn 1.

That triggered a melee as cars checked up behind Keselowski. Carl Edwards was a victim of the accident, as ill fortune at Daytona continued to haunt the driver who already had wrecked four cars at Daytona this year.

Other casualties included 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., making his first start as a full-time Cup driver in the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion.

The first major wreck of the race — on Lap 33 as the double-file lead pack of cars exited the tri-oval — dashed the hopes of former Daytona 500 winners Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray, as well as those of pre-race favorites Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.

As the field stacked up toward Turn 1, Kyle Busch tagged the back of Kahne’s car, turning Kahne into Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet SS and igniting a nine-car incident that also damaged the cars of Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Casey Mears.

Keselowski suffered damage to the both sides of his Ford, pinballing off both Montoya and Harvick, but was able to continue. Kurt Busch lost a lap on pit road with the nose of his Chevy caved in from contact during the wreck. Casey Mears, who had qualified 17th, also sustained significant damage.

Note: Other drivers who have won their 400th Cup starts include Lee Petty, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Dave Marci’s and Dale Earnhardt.

Bass Pro Shops will also return to the No. 1 Chevy in 2013, but will only appear as primary sponsor in two races.

SHR was in the market for a sponsor to replace Office Depot, which announced that it was leaving the No. 14 team at the end of the season earlier this year.

Bass Pro Shops was in its last year with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and the No. 1 Chevy driven by Jamie McMurray.

Bass Pro Shops will continue to sponsor Austin and Ty Dillon in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

Quicken Loans also recently extended its partnership with SHR for the No. 39 Chevy and Ryan Newman. The US Army announced earlier this season that it would leave the team at season’s end. It appears that Quicken Loans has picked up the majority of the races that the Army gave up.

Related Stories

• Stewart Haas Racing Re-Signs Newman
• Office Depot Leaving SHR’s No. 14 At Season’s End
• SHR Expects To Field Three Teams In 2013
•  US Army To Leave SHR’s No. 39 At Season’s End

The following night in the Bud Shootout, Johnson was involved in a crash that collected  Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger, and resulted in Jeff Gordon flipping down the backstretch. Kyle Busch and a few other cars were involved, but they were able to continue. Johnson finished 14th.

Johnson’s weekend got a little boost when he finished third in his Gatorade Duel, earning him the eight starting position in the Daytona 500.

But, on lap 2 of the 500, Johnson was pushing Regan Smith with help from Elliott Sadler. As Sadler pushed Johnson, Johnson went high, it looked like, to pass Smith. Just as he got outside, Sadler made contact with Johnson in his left rear, an action that had catastrophic results throughout the weekend. The contact turned Johnson, turned down, then back up to correct it. He hit the outside wall head-on, then he spun across the track coming to rest in the middle.

Danica Patrick made contact with David Ragan while trying to avoid Johnson’s car, which sent both of them sliding into it. Ragan made hard contact with Johnson. Ragan’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford and Johnson’s Chevy were both done. Patrick repaired the damage and returned to the race nearly 70 laps down. Johnson wound up finishing 42nd.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the five-time Sprint Cup champion, NASCAR announced penalties, suspensions and fines for the No. 48 team.

The No. 48 car was found to be in violation of Sections 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing); 12-4J (any determination by NASCAR officials that race equipment used in the event does not conform to NASCAR rules detailed in Section 20 of the rule book or has not been approved by NASCAR prior to the event); and 20-2.1E (if in the judgment of NASCAR officials, any part or component of the car not previously approved by NASCAR that has been installed or modified to enhance aerodynamic performance will not be permitted — unapproved car body modifications).

Crew chief Chad Knaus and car chief Ron malec were suspended for the next six Sprint Cup Series championship events.  They both have been placed on NASCAR probation until May 9th. Knaus was also fined $100,000.

Driver Jimmie Johnson and car owner Jeff Gordon have been penalized with the loss of 25 driver and owner points, respectively.

As a result, Johnson should be 23 points in the hole because he only earned 2 points by finishing 42nd.

Jeff Gordon’s wreck, which collects Johnson, others: 

Johnson’s Wreck in the Daytona 500:

In a Daytona 500 that featured the first postponement in its history, a ball of fire from a racecar vs. jet dryer collision under caution and a surfeit of wild action in the closing laps, Matt Kenseth won his second Daytona 500 when the tandem of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle couldn’t catch the race winner in a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Earnhardt made a slingshot move around Greg Biffle to run second in the 54th running of the Great American Race at Daytona International Speedway. Biffle came home third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton, as a late caution necessitated two extra laps beyond the scheduled 200.

Paul Menard, Kevin Harvick, pole-sitter Carl Edwards, Joey Logano and Mark Martin completed the top 10.

Earnhardt hooked up with Biffle and pushed the No. 16 Ford after a restart on Lap 201, but the pair could not make headway against Kenseth who moved to the front of the field and stayed there.

Earnhardt expected Biffle to pull out and make a move, but the move never came.

“I was waiting and waiting,” Earnhardt said. “It looked like he might have been trying to make a move on the back straightaway, but nothing materialized there. Then we came off (Turn) 4, and I kind of waited till the last minute for him to have his opportunity to try to pass Matt, and nothing was happening, so I just pulled out and went around him.”

Kenseth had plenty of power at the finish, despite problems with the cooling system that plagued him early in the race.

“We had a lot of problems — it was spewing water,” said Kenseth, who notched the 22nd NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of his career. “I have to give a lot of credit to (engine builder) Doug Yates and the guys at the engine shop. We had great horsepower.

“I could get a pretty good start on the bottom and either Denny or Dale Jr. could push me for a while and then they just couldn’t stay attached and I would get away from them just in time to get in front of Greg, and the two of us together could make some unbelievable speed. I have to thank Greg. We worked together really good all day long. He had a really fast car all day as well.”

A multicar wreck on Lap 188 thinned the herd considerably, taking out a handful of competitive cars. Jamie McMurray spun wildly near the entrance to Turn 1, and the chain-reaction collision wiped out the cars of Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne and Aric Almirola and damaged the machines of Edwards and Tony Stewart.

Another melee on Lap 196 set up the overtime. After contact from Joey Logano’s Toyota, the Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. caromed into Stewart’s Chevrolet, turning the defending Cup champion sideways and igniting a pinball-style wreck that also involved Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.

A strange weekend that saw the first weather postponement in the history of the Daytona 500 got downright bizarre during a round of pit stops under caution late in the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya brought his No. 42 Chevrolet to pit road under caution on Lap 160, complaining of transmission issues. His car fell victim to a strong vibration when he returned to the track, and Montoya slid out of control at the entrance to Turn 3 and slammed into a jet dryer, which was against the outside wall, blowing the track.

The collision ignited the jet fuel in the dryer and set both vehicles ablaze. Montoya and the driver of the service vehicle both escaped the wreckage, but the latter — Duane Barnes, from Michigan International Speedway — was taken to nearby Halifax Medical Center for further evaluation.

“Something failed in the rear of the car, and the car just spun into the jet dryer,” Montoya said after a visit to the care center. “I left the pits and felt a really weird vibration, and I came back in and checked the rear end and (they) said it was OK, and I got into the backstraight and we were going in fourth gear but wasn’t going that fast.

“Every time I got on the gas, I could feel the rear squeezing. When I was telling the spotter to have a look how the rear was moving, the car just turned right.”

NASCAR red-flagged the race as safety vehicles arrived on the scene and track workers attempted to put out the fire.

“There’s going to be a big speed bump heading into Turn 3,” crew chief Steve Letarte told Dale Earnhardt Jr., fearful that the blaze would melt the asphalt. “I will be shocked — shocked — if we can get this race restarted.”

Letarte was wrong.

Safety workers cleared the scene by hoisting the remains of the jet dryer on a tow truck with a boom to prevent further damage to the asphalt. After a stoppage of two hours, five minutes and 29 seconds, the event resumed just before midnight ET.

The race was barely one lap old when contact from the front bumper of Elliott Sadler’s Chevrolet turned the No. 48 Chevy of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson hard into the outside wall near the exit from the tri-oval.

Unable to avoid the wreck, David Ragan plowed into the side of Johnson’s car. Neither Johnson nor Ragan was able to continue; they retired from the race in the 42nd and 43rd positions, respectively.

The cars of defending race winner Trevor Bayne, Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch were severely damaged in the melee and all three headed to the garage for extensive repairs and later returned to the track.

“The steering’s off,” Patrick said, as she brought the No. 10 Chevy to pit road. Her crew repaired the rear suspension, but Patrick was 62 laps down when she reappeared on Lap 66. She wound up 38th in her Sprint Cup debut.

Notes: Martin Truex Jr. won the $200,000 bonus for leading the race at the halfway point . . . The top four drivers when Juan Montoya hit the jet dryer were Dave Blaney, Landon Cassill, Tony Raines and David Gilliland, none of whom had come to pit road with the rest of the lead-lap cars. Irreparable damage to the track or an ill-timed rain cell could have made a winner of Blaney. . . . Edwards and Kyle Busch had to restart from the rear when the race resumed for removing tear-offs from their windshields under the red flag.

Performance is at a stand-still for drivers like Burton, Biffle and Almendinger.  They have a handful of top 10 finishes between them this year and have been flying under the radar all season. Making a crew chief change is a perfect opportunity for these teams to get the improvements they have been looking for. 

All of these teams have the potential to finish well every week, they are just missing a certain spark to get to those finishes.  Hopefully these changes will provide that spark.

For Truex Jr’s team, I feel that communication is one of the major issues.  With only three top 10 finishes and many DNF’s this season, a change had to be made.  Earlier in the year, the team replaced their tire changers in hopes of improving performance.  Unfortunately, their luck never improved.  The No. 56 team now has Chad Johnson as crew chief, formally the lead engineer of Micheal Waltrip Racing.

This team has nothing to lose and everything to gain.  We know that Truex has the potential to win races, he just needs a strong team backing to get there.  I think this change will take time to settle in, but will eventually bring improvement to that MWR team.

Montoya seems to be the roller-coaster driver of this season.  He started off the year well and was as high as fourth in points.  However, in five races out of the last ten, he has finished 20th or worse and has now plummeted to 17th in points.  In my opinion, the crew chief is not the problem. 

We’ve seen Montoya lose his temper with other drivers and his own team countless times throughout the year.  I feel like his temper gets in the way of focusing on his job.  Maybe his new crew chief, Jim Pohlman, can keep the Colombian driver level-headed.  If not, I think Ganassi needs to address the situation and figure out a solution for Montoya.  He is a talented driver, he just needs to focus on his race, rather than focusing on who he’s going to box after the race.

In conclusion, I don’t think this will be the last crew chief changes of the season.  Drivers like, Brian Vickers and Jamie McMurray are used to running well, and aren’t having the finishes they need.  Possible crew chief changes?  I guess we’ll just have to keep watching as this season unfolds.

The signing of a deal was really a formality, as there was little chance that EGR would let McMurray get away after a season in which McMurray won the season’s biggest events, the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis; and finished second in the season’s next-biggest events, the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington, and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

He also won the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte and finished second in the Aaron’s 599 at Talladega.

Driving JR Motorsports’ No. 88 Chevrolet, McMurray asserted his superiority over the final 40 of 195 laps to win the Nationwide Series Great Clips 300 at the 1.54-mile racetrack. The victory, the eighth of McMurray’s Nationwide career, was his first since November 2004 at Darlington.

Busch is tied with Sam Ard for the series’ single-season wins record with 10.

Carl Edwards ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth. Joey Logano, Jason Leffler, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top 10. Series points leader Brad Keselowski finished 12th and saw his advantage over second-place Edwards trimmed to 332 points.

“We unloaded today and had pretty much the fastest car off the truck,” McMurray said. “It was just pretty loose, and we just did a really good job of adjusting on it.”

The good adjustments continued late into the race, McMurray said.

“At the end, Pops (crew chief Tony Eury Sr.) adjusted on it, and it was pretty fast, even on the short runs.”

McMurray led 43 of the final 47 laps, including the last 23.

“It’s the same thing every week,” McMurray said. “The car out front—the clean air’s huge.”

McMurray’s short-run speed proved decisive in a race that took a series of intriguing turns, including one sequence where only one car was scored on the lead lap.

Harvick took four tires under caution on Lap 62, while Busch and most other contenders chose to restart on old rubber when the field came to green on Lap 65. After restarting 12th, Harvick passed McMurray for the lead on Lap 70.

By Lap 112, he had the rest of the field at least one lap down, after Busch and other drivers on old tires came to the pits under green. Harvick gave up the lead to Busch when he made a green-flag stop for tires and fuel on Lap 120.

Harvick left the pits eight seconds behind Busch but cut that margin in half before Ryan Newman spun Trevor Bayne on the backstretch to cause the third caution of the race and bunch the field. McMurray was first out of the pits under caution and led the field to a restart on Lap 153.

McMurray stayed out front until contact from Stenhouse sent Reed Sorenson’s Toyota hard into the outside wall on Lap 168. Keselowski and 11th-place finisher Josh Wise stayed on the track under the caution, but they quickly surrendered the top two spots when the field restarted.

McMurray surged to the front with Busch in pursuit, but Busch was unable to make up significant ground in the closing laps and finished .286 seconds back.

“We just didn’t quite have enough there on short runs to keep up with them,” Busch said. “Once we got about 25 or 30 laps on (the tires), we could really start reeling them in and pass them. Typically, it’s always a long-run car that wins here—Harvick beat me last year with a long-run car—but that wasn’t the case tonight.”