Junior Wins Daytona – NASCAR Recap

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Dale Earnhardt Jr. waited through a lengthy rain delay before ending a pair of droughts.

NASCAR's most popular driver won the Daytona 500 for the second time, a decade after his first victory in the "Great American Race." Earnhardt also snapped a 55-race winless streak that dated to 2012.

Earnhardt led for 54 laps and finished 0.092 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin. Brad Keselowski was third, followed by Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

Rain stopped the race about 45 minutes after it began for a delay of more than six hours. When it resumed, Earnhardt dominated at the track where his father was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 race.