The threat of heavy rain in the form of deep battleship gray skies hovered over the 2.5-mile superspeedway that is Daytona International Speedway all day long, however, the 51st annual edition of The Great American Race was green flagged at its schedules 3 P.M. (EST) starting time. And when the race did start, it was the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch flying into the lead, the #18 Camry taking off like a bat out of hell. It was immediately apparent to the 200,000 fans on hand (and to the millions across the nation who watched on live television) that Busch was the man to beat as he led virtually every single one of the first 50 laps of the race at a record pace of 161 miles per hour. Jeff Gordon would lead for a brief period beginning on lap number 71, but not long after, Busch was back out front and leading the way. As Busch and the other 33 cars on the lead lap crossed the finish line stripe on lap number 100 they were met by crossed flags, to symbolize that the 200-lap race was halfway complete. A few laps later, small raindrops began to hit the windshield of leader Busch as he careened around the track at nearly 190 miles per hour. The sky above Daytona now alarmingly dark, heavy rain was imminent and everyone knew it, thus the crew chiefs radioed to their drivers to begin doing whatever they needed to do to get to the front of the field. And so it was at that point the race to win the 2009 Daytona became a race to beat the rain and many a driver began taking big chances. And to that end, with 76 laps to go, The Big One happened when Dale Earnhardt Junior and Brian Vickers — both a lap down — triggered a huge crash at the front of the field which sent 10 of the best cars in the race spinning, sliding and colliding, causing a colossal mess of smoke, fluids, broken glass and bent metal. Involved in the melee were Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson and Scott Speed.

And also caught up in the incident was Kyle Busch, who up to that point in time had led 88 laps of the race.

“I think we were the best car out there,” lamented Busch after climbing from his car. “Us, the 24 [Jeff Gordon], the 11 [Denny Hamlin] were strong, a couple other guys. I felt like our car was the car to beat. We were awfully good. We were running out front and biding our time. I don’t think we fell worse than fifth or sixth the whole time out there.”

Frustrated and in a mood to point fingers, Busch had no problem blaming the wreck on Earnhardt and Vickers, both drivers trying their best to stay up front to avoid being lapped when they slammed into one another.

“One guy that had problems all day long on pit road made his problems our problems, and our problems big problems,” Busch said, referring to Earnhardt. “It’s just unfortunate. It’s really uncalled for two lapped cars to be racing each other and bumping each other like that. You’ll have that, I guess, in big-time auto racing. Some guys made their bad day our bad day. It’s a shame. It’s too bad two guys who were a lap down got together racing too hard.”

When the race went back to green, all those who still had a chance to win, mashed their gas pedals into aluminum floorboards and went for it. The #17 Ford Fusion of Roush-Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth passed Elliott Sadler on lap 146. Soon thereafter, the #8 car of Aric Almirola spun on the backstretch and out came the yellow flag. It was then that the skies opened up and heavy rain began spitting down on Daytona International Speedway. The cars were sent down pit lane, engines shut off and everyone waited to hear what NASCAR was going to do. As the downpour continued, just short of 7 P.M., NASCAR called the race complete and Matt Kenseth was declared the winner.

“Oh, man, it’s unbelievable,” Kenseth said from beneath an umbrella.

Richard Childress Racing driver Kevin Harvick was scored as the place finisher. Richard Petty Motorsports’ AJ Allmendinger placed third, Clint Bowyer fourth and RPM’s Elliott Sadler fifth.

By Eric Johnson