Kenseth Reigns at Daytona Parade

Earnhardt Jr. Leaves Lasting Impression With Wreck in Weather-Shortened Race

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 15 -- NASCAR's most popular driver didn't win Sunday's Daytona 500, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. provided 90 percent of the drama, botching his own prospects with two gaffes in the pits and then, in a furious effort to regain lost ground, triggering a nine-car melee that took out race leader Kyle Busch.

Stock-car racing's most coveted trophy went to Matt Kenseth, declared the victor 17 minutes after heavy rains halted NASCAR's season opener with 152 of its 200 laps completed.

Kenseth had just wrested the lead from Elliott Sadler with a pass on the backstretch at Daytona International Speedway one-half lap before the skies opened up, drenching the track so thoroughly that officials red-flagged the event, bringing the cars to a halt on pit road.

Unsure whether the event would be restarted and run to its conclusion, most drivers climbed from their cars to wait out the delay. None was prepared for NASCAR's quick decision -- particularly Kenseth, among the few who stayed strapped in his car, too wrought with emotion over the victory that hung in the balance to venture out.

"Oh my goodness," said Kenseth, 36, who wept when informed he had just won the Daytona 500. "I'm crying like a baby."

His voice quivered as he thanked his race team, the Lord and all of the mentors and sponsors who had given him opportunities since he started working on racecars at age 13.

Kenseth, of Cambridge, Wis., wasn't considered a contender after starting 43rd in the 43-car field, among seven drivers sent to the rear after wrecking their primary cars earlier in the week.

The rest of the top five was equally unlikely, composed of drivers who hadn't run particularly well all afternoon. Kevin Harvick, the 2007 Daytona 500 winner, finished second, having helped shove Kenseth past Sadler on the race-winning pass. Former open-wheel racer A.J. Allmendinger was third in a partially funded Dodge owned by Richard Petty Motorsports, the reconstituted remains of two struggling NASCAR teams that merged in the offseason.

Clint Bowyer was fourth. And Sadler got shuffled back to fifth, mired in regret over his decision to dart high on the track rather than block low -- the move that allowed Kenseth to pull off what proved to be the winning pass.

As Daytona's newly crowned champion, Kenseth will be rewarded with a flurry of national TV appearances in the coming days. But the fallout is sure to linger beyond that over the wreck that radically altered the running order on Lap 125, raising questions about Earnhardt Jr.'s judgment and renewing the debate over whether NASCAR holds its six-time Most Popular Driver to a more lenient standard than his peers.

Earnhardt Jr. blamed Brian Vickers, the driver he hit, for the mess. Few others saw it that way, including Vickers, who questioned why NASCAR officials didn't penalize Earnhardt Jr. for aggressive driving as they had a lesser-known driver in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston defended the non-call, calling it "an unintentional racing incident that did not warrant further action."