2016 Daytona 500

rdf:langString 2016 Daytona 500

rdf:langString Rear

rdf:langString Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip

rdf:langString "N"

rdf:langString Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida

rdf:langString Sprint Cup Series

rdf:langString NAS

rdf:langString Joe Moore, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace

rdf:langString Dave Moody , Mike Bagley and Kyle Rickey

rdf:langString Mostly sunny skies with a temperature of ; wind out of the east/southeast at

rdf:langString The 2016 Daytona 500, the 58th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on February 21, 2016, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 200 laps on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) asphalt superspeedway, it was the first race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Denny Hamlin won the race in a photo finish over Martin Truex Jr. The top-five was rounded out by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. Chase Elliott won the pole for the race and led three laps before crashing out early in the race and finished 37th. Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kyle Busch won the Duel races. Unlike Busch, Earnhardt Jr. crashed out with 29 laps to go and finished 36th. Hamlin led a race-high of 95 laps on his way to winning the race. There were six caution flag periods for 31 laps and 20 lead changes among 15 different drivers. This was the 27th career victory for Hamlin, first of the season, first at Daytona International Speedway and fifth win at the track for Joe Gibbs Racing. He left Daytona Beach with a five-point lead over Truex Jr. Toyota left with an eight-point lead over Chevrolet in the manufacturer standings. The Daytona 500 was carried by Fox Sports on the broadcast Fox network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. This event featured guest star WWE wrestler John Cena as a pace car driver. This was the first Daytona 500 since 1992 and 1998 not featuring 3-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart on the starting grid. Gordon retired at the end of 2015 and called the 2016 race from the commentators to stand, and Stewart injured his back while riding a dune buggy outside San Diego. Also, this was the last Daytona 500 starts for Bobby Labonte, Robert Richardson Jr., Michael Annett, Brian Vickers, HScott Motorsports, and Carl Edwards.