Aric Almirola survives rain and wrecks to win Coke Zero 400

Rain shortened practice and qualifying while postponing the race from Saturday night till Sunday. Quite frankly, rain played havoc all weekend long at Daytona International Speedway and that trend continued on Sunday afternoon as the race have a half-hour delay at lap nine for rain, before being called with 109 of 160 laps complete due to heavy rain. At the time of the caution, Aric Almirola had put the No. 43 United States Air Force Ford out front of the field and would pick up the victory with the race being official due to being past halfway.

“This is so awesome. The amount of effort that has gone into this team and building it to be better and a winning team as it should be has been great to watch,” Almirola commented in victory lane. “To get this car in victory lane is really special. The good lord was looking out for us today. We had a good fast car and we’ll take them anyway we can get them. We’re going to be in the Chase.”

It marks the first career Sprint Cup Series victory for the Tampa Bay, Florida native in his 125th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. It also marks the first time that the No. 43 has been in victory lane since April 1993.

“I went last week down to Tampa to do a lot of media to promote this race and ive said time and time again how bad I want to win here,” Almirola said. “I grew up sitting in those grandstands right there and dreamed about winning here and man, I just took the 43 car to victory lane here at Daytona.”

Following the second multi-car crash of the day at lap 99, Almirola started on the front row for the restart and would grab the advantage two laps later (lap 107) with help from Brian Vickers, leading the next two laps before the caution flew for rain.

Brian Vickers would get second for his sixth top-10 of 2014, followed by Kurt Busch, Casey Mears and Austin Dillon. Denny Hamlin finished sixth, followed by Michael McDowell, Danica Patrick, Clint Bowyer and Marcos Ambrose. Bobby Labonte would get 11th, followed by current points leader Jeff Gordon. After salvaging a top-15 finish after getting damage in a wreck, Gordon now leads Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 27 points.

Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. were both involved in the first of two multi-car wrecks during the day on lap 18 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose, causing Gordon to get into Tony Stewart and Stewart into Stenhouse. Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson also got a piece of the wreck.

“17 (Stenhouse) got loose. I got loose and then down on 14 (Stewart),” – Gordon commented on the radio.

“I was running three-wide and I just saw cars flying everywhere,” Johnson said. “Just real disappointing for the guys that have been working down here for four days in the heat, not to mention shop hours to only run 19 laps.”

“We’re a quarter lap away from the caution and Stenhouse wanted to be a hero,” Stewart said. “I think its pretty dumb excuse for a caution.”

“We had a good run going for the lead,” Stenhouse started. “33 (Labonte) pulled down, I got loose off the corner and then 24 (Gordon) thought I’d spin and came down, and the 24 hit the 14 (Stewart) there.”

The second wreck happened on lap 99 when Greg Biffle would get into back of Kasey Kahne, while running in the top-five.

“I was just getting hit from behind and next thing I was spinning,” Kahne explained. “Everybody was trying to get going and I just got hit and it was going left and right.”

“Just so unhappy and close quarters racing,” Biffle commented. “David Ragan gave me a big push and the 5 moved down to the middle, hit the 13 and then I hit the 5. You don’t know when the shove happens and its hard to time it all.”

Kyle Busch thought he had it cleared with a slight slip through the grass, however contact from Cole Whitt with Busch sitting on the apron resulted in Busch going over on his roof. Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray also caught air as a total of 26 cars caught a piece of the wreck.

“It was a carnival ride, but I guess that’s fitting for the Fourth of July weekend,” Busch summarized. “I think someone got the 5 turned across the field there and it went through the grass and went across, t-boned there and it toppled over.”

“From my seat, I didn’t see anything,” McMurray commented. “Kasey came over and said that Greg got him squirrley and he couldn’t catch it. When you have a car spin at the directly in the front of the field, its hard to avoid them. The car was completely off the ground there and let me say – that is a helpless feeling – so glad that it set back down.”

“She did the hostile hop there but luckily, she went back down,” Bowyer said. “But man, look at all the cars torn up and all these guys work so hard on them. Now they’re just scrap.”

Other drivers involved include Brad Keselowski, Michael Annett, Marcos Ambrose, Danica Patrick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Alex Bowman, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte, David Ragan, Reed Sorenson, David Gilliland, Landon Cassill, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Truex, Michael McDowell and Josh Wise.

“That happens right towards the front and it looks like the 16 got into the 5,” pole sitter Gilliland said. “Just a disappointing day. Hope to get fixed and get some points.”