BRAD KESELOWSKI CAPTURES FIRST DAYTONA VICTORY

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --Brad Keselowski had an excellent solution for the massive wrecks that scrambled the finishing order of Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

He stayed ahead of all of them.

Leading 115 of 161 laps in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, Keselowski sped away from his pursuers after a restart in overtime and posted his third victory of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in thoroughly convincing fashion.

The victory was Keselowski's first at Daytona and the 20th of his career, and it reinforced his mastery of restrictor-plate racing -- Keselowski already had four wins at sister track Talladega.

When the race restarted in overtime, after a caution for a four-car wreck on Lap 155, eventual runner-up Kyle Busch simply couldn't keep up with Keselowski, once he lost his push from third-place finisher Trevor Bayne. Keselowski's teammate, fourth-place finisher Joey Logano, shoved the No. 2 car to the front on the Lap 160 restart, and then it was over.

"Joey Logano was a huge part of this today," Keselowski said. "We had two great cars here with Team Penske and worked together really well. Joey has won here and he's really a pro, especially on that restart. 

"He gave me that push I needed to get to the front, and here we are at Daytona in Victory Lane. I don't care if it's not the 500. It's Daytona. This is huge. I love this place, and here we are in Victory Lane with the Detroit Ford."

That there were 27 lead changes between 13 drivers belied Keselowski's dominance. While in the lead, the 2012 series champion was able to block both the inside and outside lanes, moving back and forth at will to impede the progress of whichever line developed momentum.

With a daring move to the inside of race runner-up Kyle Busch on Lap 145, Keselowski took the lead for good and held it through two subsequent cautions for multi-car wrecks. The first wiped out Sonoma winner Tony Stewart, who was running in the top 10 at the time. The second was the coup de grace for Carl Edwards, who had qualified second but finished 25th.

Busch, who tried in vain to regain the top spot, could only admire the handling of Keselowski's Ford.

"He definitely just had way more maneuverability it seemed like than anybody, but especially than I did," Busch said. "I don't know how he got the kind of run that he got (to make the decisive pass), but when he got that run down the front stretch getting into Turn 1 and was able to turn to the bottom, my car would be kind of loose doing that.

"It would just over rotate on me a little bit, and I just never really had that opportunity from behind me besides Trevor, and I never was in the right position when I had that big of a run in order to get the lead back.

"Really, it took a lot of guys ganging up and getting together in order to make a move on him. He was pretty smart about where he positioned his car on the race track, and I could see that, and I tried to do some of those same things, but, man, it just never really worked for me as good as he could handle it."

The race ran without major incident for the first 89 laps, with a competition caution on Lap 21 and a black flag to Danica Patrick for driving through too many pit boxes on a Lap 67 green-flag pit stop first providing the bulk of the excitement.

But that was the calm before a violent storm.

As the field roared into Turn 1 on Lap 90, Jamie McMurray's Chevrolet got loose, made side-to-side contact with Ganassi Racing teammate Kyle Larson, got out of shape and veered sharply into the outside wall after contact from Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet.

That was the spark that ignited a wreck that collected 22 of the 40 cars in the field and eliminated McMurray, Johnson, Paul Menard and series leader Kevin Harvick, while heavily damaging the cars of Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth and Patrick, among others.

Harvick said he was expecting the powder keg that is restrictor-plate racing to explode at any minute -- and on Lap 90 it did.

"You really think it's going to happen from Lap 1," said Harvick, who now leads the Cup series by 14 points over Keselowski. "It's hard to make ground, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you start making ground.

"Just kind of riding there, just maintaining until that next pit stop so we could get my car off the ground and then really start being aggressive. I really couldn't be aggressive, and unfortunately, I was in the back of that front pack and ended up getting in the wreck."

But Keselowski was ahead of the wreck, as he was throughout the night, and in staying at the front he earned owner Roger Penske his 100th victory in the series.

Results from Friday’s Xfinity Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona

Aric Almirola won by less than a nose on the front end of his Ford Mustang, capturing Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Justin Allgaier finished second. Here’s the finishing order:

Suarez remains in Xfinity Series points lead after Daytona

Even though he was involved in a late wreck and finished 32nd in Friday’s Subway Firecracker 250 at Daytona International Speedway, Daniel Suarez remains atop the NASCAR Xfinity Series point standings.

But things remain tight between Suarez, second-ranked Elliott Sadler (just six points behind) and third-ranked Ty Dillon (16 points behind Suarez).

Here’s how the standings stack up as the series leaves Daytona:

NASCAR video: Remembering Austin Dillon’s horrific crash last year at Daytona

Although Austin Dillon walked away from a horrific wreck at the end of last year’s Coke Zero 400, NASCAR saw that more improvements could be made in safety.

And that’s just what NASCAR did, launching a dozen safety initiatives after Dillon’s wreck.

We revisit Dillon’s wild ride.

What’s in a name with Sprint Cup cars? Saying goodbye to Amelia and perhaps a tradition

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s goodbye to his beloved “Amelia” – retired after crashing in the season’s first two restrictor-plate races — also was goodbye to monikers for his Sprint Cup cars.

“No, we’re not going to be naming cars anymore,” Earnhardt said Thursday at Daytona International Speedway when asked if he had waved goodbye when passing by the “car graveyard” on his property where Amelia sits. “I knew as soon as we did that, it sort of took off and put a lot of pressure on that car and the team.”

“Amelia” was named for legendary aviator Amelia Earnhardt after the car won at Talladega and Daytona in 2015 because it was the first name that came to mind for Earnhardt when he thought of someone who accomplished a significant and inspiring achievement.

It’s a long-running concept for NASCAR drivers to name their cars (see this 2007 story by NBC Sports’ Dustin Long). When he drove for crew chief Ray Evernham, Jeff Gordon’s favorite in the No. 24 stable was nicknamed “Blacker” (because of its dark paint scheme).

At Team Penske, Rusty Wallace once nicknamed his cars after they won races – ‘Midnight’ was coined after he won the 1992 night race at Richmond International Raceway. “Mad Max” was spawned by an August 2000 win at Michigan in which Wallace won after leading the most laps with a car that had finished second four times (“I was madder than hell”). The car from his final win at Martinsville Speedway in April 2004 was christened “Predator.”

But in the new era in which multicar teams churn out fleets of standardized cars with production-line efficiency, the days of having a “favorite” car have been confined to the dustbin of history. It’s become easier for teams to produce virtual duplicates in shape and speed, and the constant progression of development and technology makes cars outmoded much more quickly.

“These cars just don’t stick around long enough to get names,” Earnhardt said. “You used to race cars for years and years, and they would show a personality. These days, you only keep a car for maybe a year before it’s unrecognizable or it’s cut out of the herd.

“We had so much success with that car last year that we ran it this year, and we probably shouldn’t have. There are newer ideas and theories and better ways to do things that car didn’t have. But we assumed, ‘Hey, it was doing so well, why wouldn’t it keep going?’

“But it seems like over the offseason there’s so much improvement and gains made by every organization that you can’t afford to rest on what you did the year before. Anyhow, we’ll see how this car does. We’ve got some good direction on trying to improve and built this car with some newer ideas and hopefully it’s going to go out there and be quick.”

WITH XFINITY SERIES' MILITARY TRIBUTE, WALLACE, IWUJI SHARE BOND

When the idea first surfaced of honoring active military units on the windshields of NASCAR XFINITY Series cars at Friday's Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), someone asked Jesse Iwuji which driver's car he'd like his last deployment station, USS Comstock, featured on.

Iwuji, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver in his first full season who also is in active service in the U.S. Navy until 2017, didn't hesitate: Darrell Wallace Jr.

"I've followed him a lot and I really love what he's done in the series," said Iwuji, who will attend this weekend's races at Daytona.

Like Wallace, Iwuji is African-American and a lifelong race fan. Like Wallace, Iwuji is trying to make a name for himself in the sport.

Like Wallace, Iwuji has shown great promise, but still is searching for his first win this season.

With so many similarities, somehow when Wallace first heard that his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford would honor Iwuji at Daytona International Speedway for Friday's race, his predominant thought settled on the major difference between the two drivers.

"I didn't know he was a Navy Lieutenant, so that's really cool," Wallace said.

Many XFINITY Series drivers will learn new facts about the units displayed on their race cars this weekend. Part of 'NASCAR: An American Salute,' the program honoring military units and installations is a counterpart to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' tribute during the Coca-Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend where cars featured names of service men and women who died while in active duty.

Several XFINITY Series teams have direct connections to the units, such as driver Elliott Sadler, whose windshield will be adorned with Fort Campbell's "3RD BCT 101ST ABN" to honor JR Motorsports employee Lee Langley, who served for six years at the Army base as an infantry team leader in the 101st Airborne Division.

And then there's Iwuji and Wallace. The two drivers met a couple times in the past year that Iwuji has been driving professionally, but rather than discuss Iwuji's six years of active duty in the Navy, each time the two settled on their shared passion: racing. Iwuji peppered Wallace with questions about how he prepares for races, and how he manages the full-time job of driving.

"I'm still brand new and still learning a lot," said Iwuji, who earned his first top 10 in his fifth start, "so I definitely have a long way to go."

Sometimes, Wallace has the same feeling. But after 14 XFINITY Series races this season, Wallace has five top 10s and two top fives. He's currently ninth in the driver's standings, with seemingly a fairly secure spot in the 12-driver XFINITY Chase.

But he's also winless. His second-place finish at Dover in May was a career best -- and it was just enough to leave Wallace yearning for more.

"We're knocking on the door for our first win," Wallace said. "We need to clean up some areas that we're lacking in right now. We're kind of treating this (Daytona) as a test session because we have the Chase format. We can go to the race track and bring a different package to try each and every weekend. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. ... Hopefully we can get a win to lock us into the Chase, and then win a Chase race each and every segment, and then put ourselves in a position to win the title, win the title and everybody's happy."

It seems a simple formula, though Wallace also knows there are significant strides to be made in the second half of the season.

It all starts with this weekend's race, when he'll have USS Comstock plastered atop his windshield.

"Hopefully it brings us some good luck, and hopefully it makes us 'military strong' so we can muscle some guys out of the way and get our first win," Wallace said.

BIFFLE EARNS FIRST COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD OF '16 AT DAYTONA

Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle topped the speed charts (192.955 mph) during the Coors Light Pole qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway to earn his first pole award since 2012.

Biffle sat atop the leaderboard for both of the two rounds during the single-car qualifying session. 

The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing wheelman Carl Edwards will lineup alongside Biffle after earning the second-quickest lap time (192.746 mph).

Kyle Busch completed the top three, propelling his No. 18 Toyota to a fastest time of 192.336 mph. "Rowdy" had to resort to a backup car after wrecking during the lone practice for the series.

The No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (192.320 mph) and the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski (192.254 mph) took fourth and fifth, respectively. 

Defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. will line up 16th in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Regan Smith, 40th, had to shut his engine down in the opening minutes of Round 1 after he smelled oil and heard odd noises coming from his No. 7 Chevrolet. Smith failed to turn a lap. 

The No. 30 The Motorsports Group Chevrolet of Josh Wise failed to make the 40-car field.

The 40-car field heads back to the track for Saturday's main event, the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

This story will be updated.