At the beginning of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Elliot Saddler started on the front row. On the first lap, Dale Jr. took the lead, then on lap seven, Mark Martin blows an engine and the Caution flag come out. At the Green, Dale Jr. lead. On lap fourteen, Greg Biffle tapped the wall, but no Caution was presented. On lap twenty-seven, Jeff Burton went to the garage with an engine failure. On lap 32, the leaders hit Pit Road and Bobby Labonte skidded into the grass on the way to the entrance of Pit Road. As soon as the Green flag started flying again, Tony Stewart was the leader, but when the leaders fought lapped traffic on lap forty-one, Jimmie Johnson took the lead. Then on lap seventy-one, the big wreck happened, involving Michael Waltrip, Brian Vickers, Robby Gordon, Jamie McMurry, Ryan Newman, Johnny Sauter, Scott Riggs, Terry Labonte, John Andretti, Johnny Benson, Kevin Lapage, and Sterling Marlin. Michale Waltrip got the worse when he flipped four or five times and came to a screeching halt on his rooftop. When they got the "GO" from the Green flag, there were still 129 laps remaining. The lead went back and forth between Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. During the last pit stops of the day, Greg Biffle was penalized for speeding down Pit Road. He gave the lead to Scott Wimmer, who only took two tires. Wimmer get passed quickly by Tony Stewart after Stewarts short visit to Pit Road. On lap 181, Dale Jr. got around Stewart to take the lead and the win. It took his father twenty years to win the Daytona 500 and it was a day of celebration. Now Jr. knows what his father felt the day he won the biggest race on the NASCAR schedule.