Here's Every Wild, Crash-Filled Daytona 500 Overtime Finale

The 2005 Daytona 500 was the first edition of the classic that could have featured a green-white-checkered finish. NASCAR had implemented the significant rules change part way through the 2004 Cup Series season.

The final caution of the race was thrown with three laps to go because Kasey Kahne was stuck against the backstretch wall after cutting a tire. Jeff Gordon has just taken the lead but he would have to defend it for two more laps to win his third Daytona 500. Gordon held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. first and then Kurt Busch on the final lap to win the race in a finish that was incredibly clean by modern standards.

The 2006 Daytona 500 highlighted one of the quirks of the green-white-checkered rules. If there was a caution at any point, the race was over and the leader won the race. The final restart began with Jimmie Johnson in the lead with Jeremy Mayfield. However, the broadcast was more concerned with Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally through the pack to the front.

Neither would get by Johnson and he would win the race on the exit of Turn 4 on the last lap. Greg Biffle got loose by himself high in Turn 4 and hit the wall. Race control had no option but to throw the yellow flag as the field hurtled towards the finish line.

The Daytona 500 would end in a green-white-checkered finish for the third year in a row. However, this finish would be the highlight reel spectacle that NASCAR envisioned when overtime finishes were introduced.

It was easy to assume that Mark Martin would win the race from the lead like the two previous races, but the final lap devolved into a wild scramble. Martin weaved side-to-side down the backstretch to block Kyle Busch. Kevin Harvick, who was sitting in fifth, charged to the front. Harvick and Martin were side-by-side on the run to the checkered field as everyone else crashed behind them.

Harvick would win the 2007 Daytona 500 by two-hundredths of a second, the race’s closest finish since 1959.

The next Daytona 500 finish would come three years later with a different ruleset. NASCAR had implemented double-file starts and multiple overtime attempts. If there were a caution with two laps to go in overtime, NASCAR would try to run overtime again with a maximum of three attempts before ending the race under caution.

Jamie McMurray lined up second for the second overtime attempt, but he would take the lead after leader Kevin Harvick couldn’t get up to speed quickly enough. The only serious threat to McMurray was a hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. The No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was in no man’s land as Junior cut between Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle for second. However, Earnhardt couldn’t reach McMurray’s rear bumper before the finish line.

The 2011 edition of The Great American Race was a Cinderella story. Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 two days after his 20th birthday while driving the legendary No. 21 of the part-time Wood Brothers Racing team. It was only his second-ever race start in the NASCAR Cup Series. Bayne is still the Daytona 500’s youngest winner.

The style of racing also looked different. Pack racing was gone in favor of tandem racing. Two cars hooked up nose to tail became faster than driving in a huge pack. A 46-year-old Bobby Labonte, 2000 Cup Series champion, helped push Bayne to his unlikely victory.

The 2012 Daytona 500 featured an overtime finish but is better remembered for a variety of other reasons. A rain delay pushed the race to Monday night. There was a two-hour red flag because Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into a jet dryer and Brad Keselowski tweeted from his car during the pause.

It was after midnight when the green flag was waved for the final restart. Matt Kenseth had to hold off Greg Biffle in second and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in third. Kenseth was a sitting duck on paper as long as the two trailing drivers worked together. They didn’t. Junior tried to jockey his way to second while Biffle blocked him, allowing Kenseth to win the race.

Heading into the 2015 Daytona 500, many fans hoped that pole-sitter Jeff Gordon would take the victory in his final attempt at the Great American Race before retirement. Gordon’s day, like several other drivers, would end with a destroyed car on the final lap as the Big One happened during overtime. Leader Joey Logano was safely ahead of the wreck to win the Daytona 500, becoming the second youngest winner at 24 years old.

The 2018 Daytona 500 showed how a reckless driver could abuse overtime rules to win while endangering their competitors. During the race’s final lap, Austin Dillon laid into Aric Almirola’s right-rear corner, pitching him into the wall. Dillon’s No. 3 Chevy took the lead and crossed the finish line first uncontested. If race control had thrown the caution for Almirola’s crashed car, Dillon would have won regardless. I can’t overstate how dangerous it is to wreck someone at those speeds in front of the pack.

By this point, superspeedway racing has been fully assimilated by stage racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. Events were (and still are) segmented into three separated into three distinct stages. On the schedule’s largest tracks, drivers coast around for the first two stages and race the wheels off their cars for the third.

The 2015 Daytona 500 ended in overtime with only 14 drivers still on the lead lap after starting with 40 cars. Against the rampant attrition, Joe Gibbs Racing was able to secure a 1-2-3 finish in the race with Denny Hamlin picking up his second victory in the Great American Race.

In 2020, it looked like Ryan Newman was going to secure the win for Roush Fenway Racing but the focus quickly shifted to whether he would survive to race again. Penske’s Ryan Blaney inadvertently turned Newman while trying to pass him. While Newman’s car was airborne and upside down, Corey LaJoie’s car slammed into his driver-side window.

Newman had to be cut out of his car’s mangled chassis and rushed to the hospital. The roof had given way and struck his helmet. He eventually recovered and returned to racing only three months later. Amid the chaos, Denny Hamlin passed Blaney and Newman to win his third Daytona 500 win.

Rookie Austin Cindric fought the odds and his own teammate Ryan Blaney to win the 2022 Daytona. The first edition of the Great American Race in NextGen machinery showed that overtime would still remain a no-holds-barred melee. Cindric blocked Blaney into the wall and swung down to slam the door on a late rush from 23XI’s Bubba Wallace on the run to the line. Nearly any move is permitted to win NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Numerous overtime attempts meant that last year’s Daytona 500 went 530 miles after 12 extra laps were needed to decide a winner. The race was running so long that the commentary team debated if several contenders were going to run out of fuel, but it was over in the blink of an eye. Color commentator Clint Bowyer dejectedly stated, “Oh, he got turned.” Action sports legend Travis Pastrana hooked Kyle Larson hard into the outside wall after getting bumped by Aric Almirola. The race was over and leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was declared the winner.