Well, after months of building, planing, practicing, and a thousand other things, the Daytona 500 finally came. Jeff Gordon started on the pole, with teammate Jimmie Johnson starting in second. The start of the race was rather calm, no wrecks or daring moves, but on lap 41 the first trouble struck the field, Tony Stewart getting the brunt of it.

Stewart was running in the top ten when Denny Hamlin drafted up to his back bumper, getting ‘Smoke’ loose. Tony slid up the track, right into rookie Ryan Blaney. Tony slammed the wall, pinning Blaney against it as well. Behind them several drivers wrecked, two-time 500 champ Matt Kenseth was involved as well. Stewart took the blame, saying he should have not let out of the gas, but it honestly looked more like Hamlin was to blame rather than Smoke.

After this unfortunate event the field resumed it’s steady pace. The only notable event to occur for the time being was Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking the lead, which had the crowd on its feet. At about the two-thirds mark in the race trouble hit again, though not quite as hard. Brad Keslowski, who had shown signs of engine trouble all day, finally blew his engine, while running in the middle of the pack. Drivers scrambled to avoid his slowing car, and in the process Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray hit the wall. While it wasn’t a big wreck, it was a wreck nonetheless. Newman had serious damage to his car, while McMurray only had cosmetic damage.

After this wreck drivers decided that it was go time. Thus the show began. Drivers were running three wide six rows in a row for about forty laps. It had every spectator, reporter, and team member holding their breath. As the final couple laps approached, the drivers became even more wild. A wreck seemed to be just waiting to happen. Suddenly Justin Allgier, driving the no. 51 car wrecked on the front stretch, scattering debris, but hitting no other racers. The red flag was put out, but only briefly.

The wreck happened with just two laps left, so the race would end with a green-white-checkered finish. Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick were leading at the time of the wreck, and all of them maintained their position until the green flag. When the green flag waved Joey pushed his car with all his might to the front. But he was quickly pursued by Harvick, who was being pushed by Dale Jr. As the white flag waved Harvick prepared to make a winning move on Logano, when suddenly a wreck broke out on the back stretch. After a few seconds of hesitancy, Nascar waved the caution flag. Rules state that when the caution comes out the field is frozen, and when it comes out on the last lap the race is over as long as the leader maintains a reasonable speed. Those rules stated, the win went to an excited Joey Logano, who had never won a Daytona 500 before. Many felt the caution was unnecessary, since the wreck was nowhere near the front of the pack, but what’s done is done, and Joey Logano is the 2015 Daytona 500 champion.