2012 Daytona 500
The 2012 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. The 54th iteration of the event, it was held between February 27 and 28, 2012 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, before a crowd of 140,000. Matt Kenseth driving for Roush Fenway Racing took the 202-lap race for his first win of the season and his second Daytona 500 victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second and Greg Biffle was third. The race was scheduled for February 26 but heavy rain forced NASCAR officials to delay it until February 27 at 7:02 p.m. EST. Carl Edwards, who won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying, was immediately passed by Biffle before the first turn. Biffle maintained this position until he was passed by Regan Smith on lap eleven. Denny Hamlin took over the lead after a second caution period and led the race for 57 laps, during which Biffle also led. Matt Kenseth assumed the first place on lap 146 and maintained it until a seventh caution period twelve laps later. The race was stopped for two hours and five minutes after Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer on lap 160, causing fuel to seep onto the track and catch fire. Kenseth regained the first position just before the lap 166 restart, and maintained it for the last thirty-eight laps to win the race. The race had ten cautions and saw twenty-five lead changes by ten different drivers. The result gave Kenseth the Drivers' Championship lead with 47 points, five ahead of Earnhardt, Biffle, and Hamlin. Jeff Burton followed in fifth on 41 points. Ford led the Manufacturers' Championship with nine points, three ahead of Chevrolet in second. Toyota was third with four, and Dodge was fourth. The race attracted on average 13.69 million television viewers, with 36.5 million watching part or all of the race, making it the second most-watched 500 in history. Background The 2012 Daytona 500 was the first of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the 54th edition of the event. It was scheduled to be held on February 27, 2012, in Daytona Beach, Florida, at Daytona International Speedway, a superspeedway that holds NASCAR races. The layout used for the Daytona 500 is a four-turn, superspeedway. Daytona's turns are banked at 31 degrees, and the front stretch—the location of the finish line—is banked at 18 degrees. Trevor Bayne was the race's defending winner. The Daytona 500 was conceived by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who owned the Daytona International Speedway. The race was first held in 1959; it is the successor to shorter races held on beaches around Daytona Beach, Florida. The race has been the opening round of the NASCAR season since 1982. From 1988 it was one of four events that require cars to run restrictor plates; alongside the summer Daytona race and the two races at Talladega Superspeedway. The Daytona 500 offers the