Kyle Busch wins in wild Daytona finish

The race finished under caution following an attempt of a green-white-chequered finish, with NASCAR officials needing to review the tape of the final lap to determine who the winner as Busch was running side-by-side with Carl Edwards when the caution came out.

Busch scored his second restrictor-plate win of the season, recovering from early contact with his teammate Denny Hamlin while they were battling up front. After an impressive save, he dropped to the back of the pack but charged back to put his car up front again when it counted.

In the closing stages of the race he shadowed Jeff Gordon's every move as the Hendrick driver led the field, but was left to lead the inside line of cars when Gordon moved up the track, conceding a lead that he would never recover after running strong all race long.

After that, the Roush Fenway duo of Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth turned the heat up at the front of the field. But only four laps from the end of the race Dave Blaney ignited a chain reaction after being tapped from behind by Terry Labonte on the backstretch.

The Bill Davis Racing driver lost control of his car and made contact with Jimmie Johnson who spun along with several other cars, bringing the caution out and causing a final two-lap sprint for victory between Busch, Gordon, the Roush drivers and the rest of the field.

However, when the green flag fell the cars restarted slowly, Gordon moving down to look inside Busch as well as close the door on Edwards who tried to dive on the inside of him. Gordon and Edwards made contact, Gordon spinning while Edwards was able to carry on and went in hot pursuit of Busch.

Just after they crossed the finish line to start the final lap, Robby Gordon made contact with David Ragan, causing many drivers behind them to check up.

They saved the initial wreck but it continued to roll on as they headed into turn one, Travis Kvapil clipping the right rear corner of Sam Hornish, starting yet another multi-car wreck that brought out the caution, ending the race.

Right before the yellow lights started flashing, Busch had managed to clearly put the nose of his car ahead of Edwards to claim his first Sprint Cup victory at Daytona.

"We led on that last restart and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hold those guys off behind us," Busch said. "They were so strong, the 17 (Kenseth) and the 99 (Edwards) tied up like that were really good.

"I've got to thank the 17 on that last restart. He really helped me and got me this win today. We beat out his teammate, which sometimes that happens here with your teammates at Daytona."

Edwards even crossed the finish line ahead of Busch, hoping that would be the end result but eventually he had to accept his second place finish.

"Man, I'd have given anything to be able to run at least down to the end of the back straightaway but that's the way it went and Kyle did a great job," said a disappointed Edwards.

"They were real fast. It was a little nerve-wracking there before they announced the winner, but I don't know what to tell you, second place is second place. Really wanted to win. Matt did a great job helping me. That was very cool."

Kenseth crossed the finish line in third place and said Busch was able to hold him and Edwards off thanks to some blocking on the backstretch. However he was still happy to get his best result ever at Daytona.

"He was so all over the straightaway I was fearing hitting him and spinning out," Kenseth said about Edwards moving behind Busch on the last restart. "And Kyle went up to block him and I got sideways and I was going to wreck and had to get off the gas.

"If Kyle could have got straight and we could have got a farther back run on Kyle, I think we both could have went by him and maybe raced for the win, but we just couldn't quite get that figured out exactly right."

Kurt Busch finished fourth in his back-up car after crashing his primary one in practice due to a tyre blowout. His was only the first tyre problem of the weekend as AJ Allmendinger and Elliot Sadler also ended up against the wall with tyre-related issues.

David Ragan rounded up a good day for Roush Fenway with fifth ahead of Robby Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr, who led the most laps during the race but lost positions in the closing stages following some contact.

Patrick Carpentier was the highest-finishing rookie in 14th after Hornish was involved in the incident that caused the final caution of the day at turn one.

"It was fun," said Carpentier. "The cars are so hard to drive. They're loose and sideways and the trick that did it for us at the end was we put some stickers on (new tyres) so we gained a lot of places the last couple of laps and we came through the wreck."

Eight of the race's eleven cautions came out during the last 50 laps of racing, all of them for incidents involving contact with the wall.

Tony Stewart was unable to complete the distance due to illness and handed his car over to JJ Yeley on lap 72 when he pitted under caution following an incident between Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle.

Yeley ran in the top ten in the closing stages but was involved in the last two wrecks of the day and finished the race in 20th place.

Kyle Busch has increased his lead in the points and adds another ten points bonus towards his Chase seeding. Dale Earnhardt Jr moves up to second, following a tough race for Jeff Burton.

Pos  Driver                 Make       Laps
 1.  Kyle Busch             Toyota      162
 2.  Carl Edwards           Ford        162
 3.  Matt Kenseth           Ford        162
 4.  Kurt Busch             Dodge       162
 5.  David Ragan            Ford        162
 6.  Robby Gordon           Dodge       162
 7.  Kasey Kahne            Dodge       162
 8.  Dale Earnhardt Jr      Chevrolet   162
 9.  Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet   162
10.  Mark Martin            Chevrolet   162
11.  Brian Vickers          Toyota      162
12.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet   162
13.  Bobby Labonte          Dodge       162
14.  Patrick Carpentier     Dodge       162
15.  Paul Menard            Chevrolet   162
16.  Terry Labonte          Dodge       162
17.  Martin Truex Jr        Chevrolet   162
18.  Joe Nemechek           Chevrolet   162
19.  Dave Blaney            Toyota      162
20.  Tony Stewart           Toyota      162
21.  David Reutimann        Toyota      162
22.  Reed Sorenson          Dodge       162
23.  Jimmie Johnson         Chevrolet   162
24.  Regan Smith            Chevrolet   162
25.  Michael McDowell       Toyota      162
26.  Denny Hamlin           Toyota      162
27.  Michael Waltrip        Toyota      162
28.  Johnny Sauter          Chevrolet   162
29.  Sam Hornish Jr         Dodge       162
30.  Jeff Gordon            Chevrolet   162
31.  Travis Kvapil          Ford        161
32.  Jamie McMurray         Ford        157
33.  Jon Wood               Ford        155
34.  Casey Mears            Chevrolet   152
35.  Boris Said             Ford        149
36.  Ryan Newman            Dodge       149
37.  Jeff Burton            Chevrolet   140
38.  Juan Montoya           Dodge       132
39.  Elliott Sadler         Dodge       129
40.  David Gilliland        Ford        124
41.  Sterling Marlin        Chevrolet   103
42.  A.J. Allmendinger      Toyota      100
43.  Greg Biffle            Ford         69