BUSCH WINS THE BUD

With a push from 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch won Saturday night’s season-opening exhibition race "The Budwiser Shootout" when Denny Hamlin drew a black flag for passing below the yellow out-of-bounds line as the cars approached the finish. Hamlin, who was inches ahead at the stripe, was demoted to 12th for the infraction and scored as the last car on the lead lap. Without a teammate in the race, Busch took his first victory at Daytona—and his first victory on a restrictor-plate racetrack, for that matter—in the No. 22 Penske Dodge. McMurray came home second, narrowly edging Ryan Newman, who led the race off the final corner, only to have Hamlin slingshot past him in the dogleg. Newman was third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle. This was a brand-new Daytona, with a brand-new asphalt surface and a brand-new style of racing. The fast way around the 2.5-mile superspeedway was to pair up in a two-car draft, and that was what fans saw for the entire event. The race produced a record 28 lead changes among nine drivers. "What an unbelievable experience, this two-car draft," Busch said. "I had no idea what to expect going in. I was just going to take it one lap at a time and see how it played out. I wanted to learn as the race went on how this Shell/Pennzoil Dodge raced.

EARNHARDT JUNIOR TAKES THE #3 TO A DAYTONA WIN

JUNIOR WINS AT DAYTONA: “This one’s for Daddy”

Dale Earnhardt Jnr. has taken an emotional victory at the Nationwide Cup round at Dayton Speedway. Driving the Number 3 made famous by his late father, who died in an accident at the same track, Earnhardt gave Chevrolet the perfect debut for their next generation Impala. Wearing the original blue & yellow livery of his fathers car, “Junior” held his nerve and his twitchy car to just edge out the Toyota of Joey Logano. Rookie driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third in the new Ford Mustang. “A win was the only acceptable result.” said an emotional Earnhardt after the race. “if we hadn't of won then everybody would have been saying 'what's the point'.

DAYTONA NASCAR LIVE DOWN UNDER THIS SUNDAY