Start

The race was scheduled to start at 7:45 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday evening, but the start was delayed by rain and finally pushed to the next day at 11:13 a.m.^[16] The start was pushed a pace lap due to light sprinkles in turns one and two and then another lap. After a total of seven pace laps, David Gilliland finally led the field to the green at 11:21 a.m. Matt Kenseth took the lead from Gilliland on lap five, before the first caution of the race flew for rain on lap 6, which ultimately led to a 26-minute delay under red flag conditions.

The Big One

The race restarted on lap 13, before Tony Stewart took the lead on lap 17. A competition caution was planned upon the completion of lap 20, but the second caution of the race flew on lap 20 for a multi-car wreck in the tri-oval. A total of 16 cars were involved, including points leader Jeff Gordon, defending race winner Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the Daytona 500 winner. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – who was also involved in the incident – stated that he had been "heading straight...had it saved and had it straight again and got caught in the left rear."^[17] Only Johnson and A. J. Allmendinger were eliminated from the race due to the pileup.

The race restarted on lap 29, before Reed Sorenson, Landon Cassill, David Gilliland and Jamie McMurray took turns at the head of the race, prior to the third caution of the race, on lap 41, due to debris in turn 1. The race restarted on lap 45 with McMurray leading the way. Greg Biffle took the lead on lap 52, while Kurt Busch took the lead on lap 60. Biffle retook the lead on lap 86, before the start of the pit cycle, coming under green flag conditions. Gordon took the lead before it cycled back to Kurt Busch on lap 89. Debris on the backstretch brought out the caution for the fourth time on lap 94.

The Huge One

The race restarted on lap 98 and the fifth caution flew for another multi-car wreck on the back straightaway collecting 26 cars. It started when Kasey Kahne got turned by Greg Biffle and Kahne turned down into Joey Logano. Everyone checked up but piled into other cars triggering the wreck. During the wreck, Cole Whitt came down the race track and ended up hitting the right rear of Kyle Busch's car and ended up turning Busch upside down. Busch even joked around while being upside down on his radio saying "Just having a good old time over here" with his spotter responding "Just hanging around?". The red flag was displayed for the second time. The cars involved in the wreck were Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Joey Logano, Cole Whitt, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Alex Bowman, David Gilliland, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, Josh Wise, Michael Annett, Ryan Truex, Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, Landon Cassill, Jamie McMurray, Marcos Ambrose, David Ragan, Denny Hamlin, Danica Patrick, Brad Keselowski, Terry Labonte, Reed Sorenson, and Michael McDowell. Gilliland described the incident as "all heck broke loose all at once", while Kyle Busch had driven through the grass before his car dug in and sent him back towards traffic; he described his roll as "real slow", After 4 minutes and 48 seconds, the red flag was lifted and the field continued under caution.^[18] Footage from this crash was used in the 2015 film Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

Mother Nature finally wins

The race restarted on lap 105, and it remained green for 5 laps, The sixth caution of the race flew on lap 109 again for rain, and the cars were brought back down pit road as the race was red flagged for the third time. Eventually, NASCAR called the race and Almirola scored his first career win. Almirola's victory was the first for a car numbered 43, since John Andretti did so in the 1999 Goody's Body Pain 500 at Martinsville Speedway.^[19] For the first time since the 2007 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, all top ten starting drivers failed to finish within the top ten positions.