Daytona 500 2015 Results: Top Finishers and Reaction from Great American Race

Joey Logano got a head start on the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season by winning his first Daytona 500 on the heels of a thrilling display from racing's best on the sport's biggest stage.

The race ended on a caution flag after a hopeful green-and-white-checkered finish, but that was the only moment of the final stretch that failed to excite. Save for a few wrecks caused by aggressive moves in the final few laps, the track saw three-wide action with eight rows of cars gunning for positioning late.

In the end, Logano had pulled out in front enough before the caution to secure the win whether NASCAR had allowed it to finish or not. Team Penske tweeted the result, with NASCAR adding footage of his celebration:

Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both made aggressive moves on the final restart, but it only got them ahead of Jimmie Johnson—who led 40 laps on the day. All of them were able to avoid the late-race pileups, which doomed 87-lap leader Jeff Gordon on his last ever appearance at the Great American Race.

Here's an initial look at the final race results, per NASCAR.com:

Pos.	Driver	Laps Led	Points
1	Joey Logano	31	47
2	Kevin Harvick	0	42
3	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	32	42
4	Denny Hamlin	4	41
5	Jimmie Johnson	31	40
6	Casey Mears	1	39
7	Clint Bowyer	0	37
8	Martin Truex Jr.	1	37
9	Kasey Kahne	0	35
10	Greg Biffle	2	35
11	David Gilliland	0	33
12	Sam Hornish Jr.	0	32
13	Michael Annett	1	32
14	Austin Dillon	0	30
15	Aric Almirola	0	29
16	Regan Smith	0	28
17	David Ragan	0	27
18	Johnny Sauter	0	0
19	Matt Crafton	0	-
20	AJ Allmendinger	1	25
21	Danica Patrick	0	23
22	Cole Whitt	0	22
23	Jamie McMurray	0	21
24	Carl Edwards	3	21
25	Michael Waltrip	0	19
26	Bobby Labonte	0	18
27	Paul Menard	0	17
28	Ty Dillon	0	0
29	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	0	15
30	Trevor Bayne	0	14
31	Michael McDowell	0	13
32	Reed Sorenson	0	12
33	Jeff Gordon	87	13
34	Kyle Larson	0	10
35	Matt Kenseth	0	9
36	Mike Wallace	0	8
37	Justin Allgaier	0	7
38	Ryan Newman	0	6
39	Ryan Blaney	0	0
40	JJ Yeley	1	0
41	Brad Keselowski	0	3
42	Tony Stewart	0	2
43	Landon Cassill	0	0

Heading into the race, the talk wasn't about Logano but rather Gordon, and with good reason. The NASCAR living legend entered his final Daytona 500 of his career sitting on the pole and turned it into solid position early on.

Gordon was the driver to chase in the early goings, leading after 55 laps and ending with more laps led than anyone else on the track, as SportsCenter noted:

Gordon didn't go anywhere as the race trudged along, but Johnson did. Despite starting alongside Gordon at the top of the pole and trading spots for the lead often early, Johnson fell all the way to 40th following a pit-stop penalty.

He joined Carl Edwards as those who committed infractions, as NASCAR Stats showed:

With Johnson falling to the wayside, another incredibly fast car on the track made its surge, driven by Earnhardt Jr. Looking to make a repeat trip to victory lane after last year's thrilling victory, Earnhardt led 32 laps and controlled the tempo during the middle stretches of the 200-lap race.

His reign up front didn't last long, with Logano hanging around the front of the pack and waiting to make his surge. As he did, Johnson had already tracked his way from the back all the way toward the leaders in exciting fashion, per NASCAR:

At the time, Earnhardt Jr. looked to be in control, but USA Today's Nate Ryan offered some foreshadowing:

With the stretch run arriving, Logano saw an unfortunate occurrence in his rearview mirror as teammate Brad Keselowski suffered engine failure with his car going up in smoke just behind him. Ryan Blaney had a similar issue, which prompted Logano to hope his car didn't undergo the same trouble, per Fox Sports' Alan Cavanna:

Fortunately for Logano, he still had Clint Bowyer right behind him. With Logano hot on Johnson's tail for the lead with just a few laps remaining, the Michael Waltrip Racing comrade got right up on Logano's bumper and gave him just enough of a boost to soar in front of the pack.

In line with how the race had unfolded prior to that point, Logano's lead looked nowhere near safe with a number of drivers nipping at his tail. But a wreck in the back of the pack involving Justin Allgaier brought the race to a halt with just two laps to go, as they saw a red flag go up, per NASCAR Stats:

Following a nearly five-minute delay to clear the track, Logano got out in front of the pack once again heading into the final lap. But just as it looked like Harvick or Earnhardt Jr. would be making a surge toward the lead, another pileup ensued in the rear of the pack.

It brought out one final caution flag, which would be the last of the race and see Logano to his first ever Daytona 500.

NASCAR driver Paul McMahan had to congratulate Logano on the win but only wished that NASCAR would have seen out the end of the race:

Even if it had, it's hard to say Logano wouldn't have still ended up in victory lane. Only about half of a lap remained in the race, and Logano had a bit of distance on the rest of the field at that point.

Winning the Daytona 500 is a signature moment in the career of any driver, which helped to explain Logano's loss for words after the race.

"I can't believe it. It was absolutely amazing," Logano told Fox Sports' Tom Jensen. "This is awesome. The Daytona 500? Oh, my God. Are you kidding? I was so nervous the whole race."

While winning the Great American Race is the perfect jump-start for any driver's season, only winning the Sprint Cup Series title will outweigh the accomplishments of Sunday. Someone who knows the feeling is last year's champion, who marked yet another top-three finish at Daytona, per ESPN Stats and Info:

But regardless of Dale's career dominance at Daytona, it wasn't his moment Sunday afternoon. It was Logano's, and it's safe to say it was well-earned for one of NASCAR's young guns.

The second-youngest Daytona 500 winner in the event's history had already made a name for himself as one of NASCAR's top-level performers. His winning the biggest event in the sport seemed like it would happen eventually, but he didn't wait long to take grasp of the opportunity.

Heading into Atlanta for a March 1 Sprint Cup race, the best drivers in NASCAR are chasing Logano.