DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. _ There were sparks and smoke, billowing up and out of Daytona International Speedway, taking with them any semblance of normalcy from an always irregular race.
So typically Daytona.
As NASCAR's most prestigious track has become known for, Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a mess. The Big One, twice over _ and one driver, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., controversially behind both of them. Huge slabs of car ripped from their frames and sprayed all over the field, taking out nearly half the field in the process. There was collision after collision, and just when the smoke cleared (literally), it all began over again.
But once the wreckage was done, the shootout began. Roughly 20 laps to go, and it was an all-out battle to the end. Martin Truex Jr. led, and then Kasey Kahne took it right from him, with Kevin Harvick in the mix all along.
A late caution with 11 laps to go (from a Stenhouse wreck) only upped the intensity in an already high-stakes contest, and then another with three laps to go magnified it again.
And then, once it hit overtime, finally there was clarity, albeit in the form of a third Big One: another wreck took out Harvick and other competitors, leaving a battle between Truex and Erik Jones for the win. And with a final burst on the outside, Jones swooped in front of Truex and won his first-ever Cup Series race.
