After a legendary “Start your engines” by Matthew McConaughey, the green flag waved with Dale Jarrett leading the field, but he lost the first lap to Jimmie Johnson and fell back through the field after a small bump from behind from defending Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. Tony Stewart took the lead from Johnson on lap 4 and led 12 laps.
The first caution came out on lap 15 halfway through the first fuel run when Bobby Labonte blew an engine. The field chose to make pit stops during the caution period. Scott Wimmer, who had only changed two tires, led when the race restarted.
The second caution flew on lap 28 when Ricky Rudd spun out in the middle of the field, collecting five cars. On lap 36, Matt Kenseth, one of the pre-race favorites had smoke coming from the exhaust pipe and chose to make a pit stop under green flag conditions.
The wave of green-flag pit stops began on lap 61. The Dodges came in first, as they did not get as good fuel mileage as the other manufacturers. Earnhardt Jr. was pushed by Jeff Burton coming into his pit stop, and had to back up to get out after his tires were changed, causing him to drop down through the field. There was a total of seven speeding violations on pit road during these pit stops, most notably Johnson. Once the green flag pit stops cycled through on lap 64, Jeff Gordon had the lead.
Debris on the racetrack brought out the third caution on lap 86, with Gordon still out in front. After pit stops, Stewart led the race at the restart. Stewart was still leading at the halfway point, and when the fourth caution came out on lap 105 for debris.
On lap 137, there came another round of green-flag pit stops, with Stewart still in the lead. The fifth caution came out on lap 144 and the sixth one came on lap 155. Michael Waltrip suffered an engine failure on lap 160 which brought out the 7th caution flag, dropping him out of the race. Another round of pit stops took place on lap 164. Jason Leffler and Kasey Kahne collided together on pit road, dropping them both down the field. The wreck on pit road occurred when Kasey Kahne, who was 4th when the pit stops began, was exiting his pit stall, and Leffler was turning into his, unbeknownst to Kahne. Kahne would later rebound before becoming a victim of a couple of crashes not of his own making.
With 32 laps to go, John Andretti, running three-wide and following a group of cars going four-wide, crashed and turned into Leffler, taking him out of the race. This would bring up the eighth caution, with Stewart still out in front.
Stewart became the first driver since Bobby Allison in 1981 and 1982 to lead the most laps in two consecutive Daytona 500's.
The 9th caution flag came out on lap 184 due to the "Big One". This began when Greg Biffle ran into Scott Riggs, collecting 11 cars in turn 3. Scott Wimmer's car took the worst of it, as his car went onto the apron, flipped over four times, spun on its nose, and landed hard on its wheels. Only some cars chose to pit, and Stewart and the others stayed out. Earnhardt Jr., who had languished in midfield for the earlier part of the race, was now up to third place. Kasey Kahne was right in the middle of this crash in his #9 mango colored Dodge Charger, but managed to miss it. Kahne charged again back up through the field when the race went back green.
When the race restarted on lap 187, Andretti drove straight into Mike Skinner, starting a chain reaction crash (another "Big One") involving at least eight cars, bringing out the immediate 10th caution. This crash was the result of someone (possibly Skinner) missing a gear at the restart. Kasey Kahne was also involved in this crash, because as he checked up Dale Jarrett in the 88 accidentally punted him into the infield grass. Kahne spent a lot of time on pit road, but he did not lose a lap, and apparently his car was, or should have been being checked for fender rubs, when the race restarted Kahne made his way from about the 20th position to about the 8th position, but there was clearly still a tire rub on his right front fender; because it was clearly smoking, and FOX commentator Darrel Waltrip even made mention of it, as he made his way back up through the field again.
The race restarted with six laps to go. With five to go, Earnhardt Jr. briefly took the lead, but Stewart retook it on the next lap. The two drivers raced side-by-side until Earnhardt Jr. retook the lead. Gordon took the lead before the 11th caution came out with three laps to go. The caution came out when Kasey Kahne was on the outside moving forward from the 8th position trying keep his momentum up and move into the top 6 or so, as Kurt Busch made a pass on Tony Stewart, who was in the lead; but Jeff Gordon was also fighting on the outside with Stewart for the lead; Kahne slid up the race track hard probably due to a cut tire and as he did so, his teammate Jeremy Mayfield in the 19 car apparently got into the back of him as well and Kahne went into the wall. He could not get off the wall until about the middle of the backstretch, when NASCAR finally brought out the caution. Kahne would end up scored 22nd after being crashed while running 7th and possibly moving up into the top 5 to contend for the win. Oddly as the cars came around for the green flag Kahne's teammate Jeremy Mayfield came down to pit road from running 9th on the track, but apparently returned to the race and would end up finishing a position behind his teammate.
The race length of 200 laps and 500 miles (800 km) was completed under yellow, so a green-white-checker finish would take place. The race restarted on lap 202 with two laps to go. Despite much activity behind him, Gordon was able to hold off Kurt Busch and Earnhardt Jr. to win his third Daytona 500.
This was the third-slowest Daytona 500 to go the distance, with only both the 1960 and 2011 races were slower. Two other runnings of this race in the 2000s were also slower, but they both were rain-shortened.
