Matt Kenseth Wins Fiery Daytona 500 In The Wee Hours

It certainly wasn’t a win, and his winless streak may have been extended to 130-races and counting, but a second-place finish in the Daytona 500 had Dale Earnhardt Jr. feeling pretty upbeat early Tuesday morning.

Starting in the fifth position, Earnhardt Jr. was a fixture at the front of the field throughout the 500-mile affair. Even as various accidents and mechanical failures continued to weed out the field – including Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne – Earnhardt Jr. kept showing he had one of the strongest cars of the night.

Edit: 2013 Daytona 500 results can be found here. The 2013 Daytona 500 purse is here.

Winning the Daytona 500 results in a very lucrative payday, as you probably can guess. But just starting the Daytona 500 has plenty of benefits, too.

Matt Kenseth won Monday night early Tuesday morning’s Daytona 500.

But in 10 years from now – heck, maybe even three or five – Kenseth’s victory itself may be nothing more than an afterthought when discussing the 54th running of the Great American Race.

Martin Truex Jr. was well aware of Daytona International Speedway’s halfway leader bonus and made sure he put himself in position to win the $200,000 prize during Monday night’s Daytona 500.

Greg Biffle was leading the race heading to the final lap before halfway, but Truex backed up to Denny Hamlin from his second-place position and let the Toyota teammate push him past Biffle.

Approaching the halfway point of the Daytona 500, Jeff Gordon lost the engine in his No. 24 Chevrolet in a fiery explosion heading into Turn 3.

“I have a feeling that water-pressure gauge was not working properly,” Gordon immediately radioed to his crew. “I have no idea where that came from.

Update Monday AM: Daytona start time has been changed to Monday night.

It’s 2012 Daytona 500 race day at Daytona International Speedway – again. We’ve got the scheduled race start time, the TV/radio schedule and some other facts about the postponed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series opener for you below.