Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins Daytona 500 in wreck-filled finish

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Daytona 500’s recent history of late-race crashes deciding the winner continued Sunday, and this time there was an unlikely winner — Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stenhouse, whose best previous finish in the 500 was seventh, was in front on the final lap in overtime when a multi-car wreck developed behind him, prompting a caution flag and writing finish to the race. After the field takes the white flag in a green-white-checkered finish and a caution flag flies, the leader at that moment is declared the winner.

That leader this time was Stenhouse, the pride of Olive Branch, Miss. A solid short-track racer, Stenhouse’s journey in Cup has been generally disappointing, but on this Sunday he drove through crashes and into the promised land.

And he wasn’t the only unusual visitor to victory lane. Stenhouse, 35, put JTG-Daugherty Racing, one of NASCAR’s smallest teams, in stock car racing’s throne room for the first time. The single-car Chevrolet team is owned by Tad and Jodi Geschickter and former National Basketball Association player Brad Daugherty. The team’s only previous Cup victory was scored by AJ Allmendinger on the Watkins Glen road course in 2014.

“The whole offseason Mike (crew chief Mike Kelley) preached how we all believe in each other,” Stenhouse told Fox Sports. “I made a few mistakes, but we were able to battle back. We had great pit stops, and we got it done — the Daytona 500.”

The victory was Stenhouse’s third in the Cup Series. The previous victories came in the 2017 season at Talladega Superspeedway and in Daytona’s summer race. He was driving then for team owner Jack Roush.

The elongated finish, one so similar to most recent Daytona 500s as a chain of accidents settled the issue, was set up