The winter's quiet is over and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is in full force. It began Sunday (2/17) with the sport's most prestigious event, the Daytona 500 down in Florida.

It was the 61st running of the event that began in 1959. The inaugural race ran caution free with #42 Lee Petty winning after battling Johnny Beauchamp in the #73 car on the final lap.

That race was the first ever ran on Daytona International Speedway. It had a crowd of just under 42,000 people in attendance and the average speed of the race was slightly over 135 m.p.h.

Now, let's talk about what happened at the 2019 Daytona 500. With over 200,000 people on hand, not counting all the viewers, and speeds of over 190 mph, the legacy of "The Great American Race" lives on.

Only this race was anything but caution free. As a matter of fact, there ended up being only three cars that were not involved in a wreck before the race was finished.

The big crash, known as "The Big One", involved 20 cars and looked like a fireworks display.

It took NASCAR Overtime, two red flags and three big wrecks in the last 10 laps of the race for Denny Hamlin to reach the finish line for the victory. It was his second time winning the Daytona 500.

It was a great day for Joe Gibbs Racing. As the team swept the top three spots with Hamlin out front, Kyle Busch in second and Erik Jones in third.

Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano finished in fourth followed by Michael McDowell. See where your driver finished.

 

 

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