Entry List

• (R) denotes rookie driver
• (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points

Final laps

With 48 laps to go, Brad Keselowski took the lead. With 47 to go, Joey Logano took the lead back. With 45 to go, Danica Patrick took the lead from Logano. With 44 to go, Mike Wallace took the lead with Kevin Harvick pushing him. With 42 to go, Danica Patrick took the lead back with Cole Whitt behind her. With 38 to go, James Buescher, who won the Daytona race back in February, took the lead with Brad Keselowski pushing him. With 37 to go, Kevin Harvick took the lead with Mike Wallace behind him. With 35 to go, Justin Allgaier took the lead with Danica Patrick in turn 2 after Harvick and Wallace went to switch spots but did it in a very unsuccessful way. Harvick got caught up in the middle with no draft so Wallace tried to come down in front of James Buescher. But Wallace did it too late and Wallace made contact with Buescher cutting his right front tire and causing him to go up the track and turn Brad Keselowski the first big wreck of the race that took out 17 cars in a chain reaction wreck. The wreck collected Mike Wallace, Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler, Danny Efland, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Casey Roderick, James Buescher, Kevin Harvick, Bobby Santos III, Michael Annett, Kyle Busch, Johanna Long, Jason Bowles, Joe Nemechek, Cole Whitt, and John Wes Townley. Justin Allgaier won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 28 laps to go. On the restart, Danica Patrick and Joey Logano both passed Allgaier on the outside with Patrick getting pushed by Austin Dillon and Logano by Sam Hornish Jr. Logano took the lead on the restart. With 25 to go, Austin Dillon took the lead with Justin Allgaier pushing him. With 24 to go, Dillon decided to drop out and give Allgaier the lead but Allgaier was slingshotted by Kurt Busch and Busch took the lead. Going through turn 4, rookie Brad Sweet attempted to take the lead from Busch on the same lap with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pushing him but Stenhouse got Sweet at the wrong angle and turned Sweet off of turn 4 where Sweet hit the inside wall drivers side door first bringing out the 4th caution of the race. The race would restart with 19 laps to go. On the restart, Bobby Santos III all of a sudden went through the grass on the backstretch. No caution was flown. At the same time, Elliott Sadler took the lead with Joey Logano pushing him. With 18 to go, the 5th caution flew for a 6 car accident on the backstretch. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was pushing Jeffrey Earnhardt when he hit Earnhardt at the wrong angle sending Earnhardt spinning across the track. Danica Patrick went low to avoid Earnhardt but came across the nose of Eric McClure sending Patrick around and hitting the inside wall while Blake Koch made contact with Jeremy Clements when Koch tried to avoid the wreck and ended up spinning himself. The race would restart with 12 laps to go. With 11 to go, Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead with Justin Allgaier but couldn't get fully in front of Sadler and Sadler retook it back before Austin Dillon tried to take it with 10 to go with Kurt Busch and led that lap but couldn't make the pass on Sadler. With 8 to go, Austin Dillon took the lead from Sadler. Dillon was looking to get his 2nd Nationwide Series win in a row after he won his first ever in his career in the previous weeks' race at Kentucky. With 5 to go, Justin Allgaier attempted to take the lead with Sam Hornish Jr. and led that lap but couldn't pass Dillon. But with just 4 laps to go, the 6th and final caution flew for debris on the frontstretch that came off of John Wes Townley's car. This would extend the race to three attempts of a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Dillon shot out to the lead but Kurt Busch slingshotted him to the outside and tried to have Logano as his pusher but Logano went high to make it 3 wide and Logano took the lead with Elliott Sadler behind him. On the final lap, Kurt Busch went to take the lead with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. behind him and got Logano and Sadler separated and Busch took the lead. Behind them, Austin Dillon got a big run with Michael Annett pushing him but Dillon wrecked coming through the tri-oval before he had a chance and Dillon caused a second big wreck coming to the checkered flag where 8 cars wrecked with Dillon where Dillon took a couple hard shots. First getting t-boned by Kyle Busch in the drivers side door and then going back up where he got t-boned on the other side by Robert Richardson Jr. The wreck also collected Johanna Long, Jason Bowles, Tayler Malsam, and Josh Richards. Kurt Busch held off everyone and won the race as soon as Dillon spun. The win would be Busch's first ever win at Daytona in all of NASCAR and his 2nd and final win of the 2012 season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael Annett, Austin Dillon, and Joey Logano rounded out the top 5 while Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Mike Bliss, Timmy Hill, and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the top 10.^[5]