After Rain, It's Matt Kenseth in Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It wasn't a full race, but for the driver from Cambridge, Wisc., it's still the Daytona 500.

Matt Kenseth, driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford, won the rain-shortened 51st running of the Daytona 500 Sunday night after NASCAR stopped the event 48 laps from the scheduled distance.
"Just to win a race after our season last year -- I didn't know if we were ever going to be able to do that again," said Kenseth. "To win the Daytona 500 is unbelievable.

It was both Kenseth's and team owner Jack Roush's first victory in NASCAR's biggest race.

Roush wasn't quite ready to overcome years of frustration in NASCAR's biggest race.

"We've been here for more than 20 years trying to do this thing," Roush said after the race. "I even got so conditioned for being frustrated through it that I was almost not believing that it would happen. I will be black and blue for the next couple of days from pinching myself just to make sure I'm not dreaming."

The win for Kenseth also was a dream for the No. 17's crew chief Drew Blickensderfer, who called his first race for Kenseth on Sunday. Batting 1-1 has Blickensdorfer pondering his future.

"I'm thinking if we don't win the first practice at California, it's a failure," joked Blickensderfer in the post-race press conference.

Kyle Busch, though, has to be thinking his time at Daytona became a failure in the final three days of Speedweeks at the east Florida track. Busch failed to convert on last lap passes for the win in Friday night's Camping World Truck Series race and Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

Sunday, he led 88 laps with one of the most dominant cars in the field before being taken out in multi-car accident in Turn 3. Afterwards, Busch was not pleased with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who started the melee after contact with Brian Vickers on the backstretch.

"Some guys having some bad days and not doing their best made their bad day, our bad day," said Busch.

NASCAR called the race on lap 152, 17 minutes after they brought the cars down pit road thanks to the red flag being displayed after rain showers descended on the track. The rain -- which had been forecasted for a few days -- finally arrived after 6 p.m./EDT, roughly 2.5 hours after the start of the race.

The quick ending stranded several drivers in the pack after others gambled heavily to chance into a Daytona 500 win. Tony Stewart (he led 15 laps), Jeff Gordon (14 laps) and Mark Martin (1 lap) all were charging back through the field and likely would have battled Kenseth and others for the win.

Instead, Stewart finished 8th, Gordon 13th and Martin 16th. Surprisingly, Jimmie Johnson had mediocre outing in his first race back from winning three-straight NASCAR titles with a 31st-place finish.

The rest of the Top-5 was 2007 winner Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer and Elliott Sadler. David Ragan, Michael Waltrip, Stewart, Reed Sorenson and Kurt Busch ronded out the Top-10.

Pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. was never much of a factor and finished 11th.

Stay with FanHouse for more updates from the week of FanHouse in Daytona.

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