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2005 Daytona 500

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47th Daytona 500
Location Daytona International Speedway
Date February 20, 2005
Laps 200
Daytona 500 Champion Jeff Gordon
Average speed 135.173
Pole Sitter Dale Jarrett
Most Laps Led Tony Stewart
Qualifying Race Winners Michael Waltrip and Tony Stewart
Television
Network Fox
Announcers Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds

The 2005 Daytona 500 was held on February 20 at the Daytona International Speedway. Dale Jarrett won the pole. The race was won by Jeff Gordon. It was his third career Daytona 500 victory. This was the first Daytona 500 to go longer than 500 miles. As the result of NASCAR's implementation of the green-white-checker finish rule the previous season, the race had three extra laps due to a caution with 3 laps to go, reaching a total distance of 507.5 miles. It was also the first Daytona 500 to end at sunset.

Race summary

The green flag waved with Dale Jarrett out in front, but he lost the first lap to Jimmie Johnson, and fell back down the field after a small bump from behind from Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The first caution flag came out on the fifteenth lap, halfway through the first fuel run, when Bobby Labonte's engine blew up. Tony Stewart had been leading for 11 laps. Scott Wimmer, who had only changed two tires, led after the caution.

The second caution came out on lap 28 when Ricky Rudd spun in the middle of the field while Michael Waltrip was leading, collecting five cars. On lap 36, Matt Kenseth, one of the pre-race favorites, in trouble with a smoking exhaust, pitted under green.

On lap 61 was the start of a series of green flag pit stops, with the Dodges coming in first as they did not get as good fuel mileage as others. Earnhardt was pushed by Jeff Burton coming into his pit stop, and had to back up to get out after his tires were changed, causing him to drop down the field. There were about 7 speeding violations on pit road during this round of pit stops, most notably Jimmie Johnson. Once the green flag pit stops cycled through on lap 64, Jeff Gordon had the lead.

Debris on the racetrack saw the third caution come out on lap 86, with Jeff Gordon still in the lead. Tony Stewart led on the restart, and was also leading at halfway and at the point of the fourth caution, for debris, on lap 105.

Around lap 137 there was another cycle of green flag pit stops, with Tony Stewart retaining the lead, before the fifth caution came out on lap 144 and the sixth caution on lap 155. Michael Waltrip caused the seventh caution, which caused him to leave the race and led to another round of pit stops on lap 164. Jason Leffler and Kyle Busch came together on pit road, dropping them both well down the field.

With 32 laps to go John Andretti, running three wide, and following a group of cars going four wide, crashed and turned into Jason Leffler, putting Leffler out of the race and bringing up the eighth caution, with Tony Stewart still in the lead.

Tony Stewart is the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1981–82 to lead the most laps in two consecutive Daytona 500s.

The "Big One" occurred on lap 184, when Greg Biffle turned in to Scott Riggs, collecting 11 cars total and which saw Scott Wimmer's car roll four times and spin on its nose, brought out the ninth caution. Only some cars chose to pit, with Stewart and others remaining out. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had languished in midfield for the earlier part of the race, was now up to third.

On the restart on lap 187, John Andretti drove straight into Mike Skinner as part of a chain reaction crash involving eight or so cars to bring out an immediate tenth caution. This accident was likely due to somebody ahead of them (or Skinner himself) missing a shift on the restart.

The race restarted with 6 laps to go. With 5 laps to go, Earnhardt briefly took the lead. Tony Stewart retook the lead on the next lap; Earnhardt and Stewart raced side-by-side until Earnhardt regained the lead. Jeff Gordon took the lead before the eleventh caution came out with three laps to go.

The race length of 500 miles (200 laps) was completed under yellow, so a green-white-checker finish was in order. The race restarted on lap 202 with 2 to go. Despite much activity behind him, Jeff Gordon was able to hold off Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to win his third Daytona 500.

It was the second-slowest Daytona 500 to go the distance, with only the 1960 race slower. Two other races in the 2000s were slower but both were rain-shortened events.

Results

Fin St # Driver Make Led Laps Status
1 15 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 29 203 3h 45m 16s
2 13 97 Kurt Busch Ford 0 203 Running
3 5 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Chevrolet 2 203 Running
4 12 10 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 0 203 Running
5 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 3 203 Running
6 32 6 Mark Martin Ford 0 203 Running
7 4 20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 107 203 Running
8 18 40 Sterling Marlin Dodge 0 203 Running
9 8 37 Kevin Lepage Dodge 0 203 Running
10 36 2 Rusty Wallace Dodge 0 203 Running
11 39 38 Elliott Sadler Ford 0 203 Running
12 27 99 Carl Edwards* Ford 0 203 Running
13 34 01 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 2 203 Running
14 38 07 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 0 203 Running
15 1 88 Dale Jarrett Ford 0 203 Running
16 26 43 Jeff Green Dodge 0 203 Running
17 33 45 Kyle Petty Dodge 1 203 Running
18 35 0 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 0 203 Running
19 25 77 Travis Kvapil Dodge 0 203 Running
20 9 12 Ryan Newman Dodge 1 203 Running
21 28 25 Brian Vickers Chevrolet 0 203 Running
22 37 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 0 203 Running
23 24 19 Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 1 203 Running
24 11 21 Ricky Rudd Ford 0 202 1 Lap down
25 23 16 Greg Biffle Ford 0 201 2 Laps down
26 29 41 Casey Mears Dodge 0 199 4 Laps down
27 41 36 Boris Said* Chevrolet 0 198 5 Laps down
28 30 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 1 198 5 Laps down
29 6 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 0 194 9 Laps down
30 7 23 Mike Skinner Dodge 0 189 Accident
31 42 14 John Andretti Ford 0 187 Accident
32 17 42 Jamie McMurray Dodge 0 184 Accident
33 16 22 Scott Wimmer Dodge 8 182 Accident
34 10 1 Martin Truex, Jr.* Chevrolet 0 178 Accident
35 22 32 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Chevrolet 0 173 30 Laps down
36 40 11 Jason Leffler Chevrolet 0 168 Accident
37 3 15 Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 42 161 Engine Failure
38 19 5 Kyle Busch* Chevrolet 0 148 55 Laps down
39 31 49 Ken Schrader Dodge 0 120 Engine Failure
40 21 00 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 0 39 Engine Failure
41 43 4 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 0 35 Overheating
42 14 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 0 34 Engine Failure
43 20 18 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 0 14 Engine Failure

(*)=Daytona 500 rookie

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