NASCAR: 2018 Daytona 500 results – Austin Dillon comes through

The 2018 NASCAR Cup Series opened up with Austin Dillon taking the checkered flag in the 60th annual Daytona 500. He led only the final lap of the race.

The 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season started off with a bang, as Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon led only one lap, the final lap, of the 60th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, taking the #3 Chevrolet to Victory Lane in the race for the first time since Dale Earnhardt did so back in 1998.

The race, which was scheduled for 200 laps but lasted for 207 laps around the 2.5-mile tri-oval thanks to a late pileup to send it to overtime, featured a total of 24 lead changes among 14 different leaders. The race featured eight caution flag periods.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney led a race-high 118 laps, but he was unable to close the deal, losing the lead late and sustaining slight damage in the wreck that sent the race to overtime. He went on to finish in 7th place after winning stage 2, and he is the leader of the championship standings.

Other race leaders aside of Dillon and Blaney include Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Paul Menard, A.J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Justin Marks, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, and Kurt Busch, who won stage one.

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The first caution flag of the race came out on lap 9 when Corey Lajoie had engine issues. The second caution flag of the race came out on lap 51 when Kyle Busch, D.J. Kennington and Jamie McMurray were involved in an accident. The third caution flag of the race came out on lap 60 when William Byron, Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson were involved in a pileup coming to the end of stage 1.

The fourth caution flag of the race came out on lap 93 as a result of debris on the backstretch. The fifth caution flag of the race came out on lap 103 when Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick, Michael McDowell, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne were invovled in another big pileup. The sixth caution flag of the race came out on lap 121 as a result of the end of stage 2.

The seventh caution flag of the race came out on lap 190 when William Byron spun out. The eight and final caution flag of the race, which sent the race into overtime, came out on lap 199 when Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Darrell Wallace Jr., Jeffrey Earnhardt and A.J Allmendinger were involved in yet another large pileup.

On the final lap of the race, Aric Almirola led, but Austin Dillon made contact with him as they headed into turn 3. As a result, Almirola spun out and Dillon went on to claim the victory, which is the second of his Cup Series career.

Here are the full results from the 60th annual Daytona 500.

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Tune in to FOX next Sunday, February 25th at 2:00 pm ET to catch the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 live from Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.