NASCAR: Kenseth wins crash-strewn Unlimited

Matt Kenseth opened the 2015 NASCAR season with victory in a messy and twice red-flagged Sprint Unlimited at Daytona.

Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Kenseth controlled the final stages of the non-championship race to keep long-time leader Martin Truex Jr.'s Furniture Row Chevrolet at bay, winning by 0.219 seconds.

"At the end there, Martin did an excellent job," Kenseth said. "He backed off me so far. I saw him letting off the gas before we got to Turn 1, and I was like 'Ah, this isn't good...'

"I just decided I was going to keep going. He got a big run at me, but we just had enough speed that, as he starting getting closer to me, we started building a little bit of RPM, and I was able to make sure that my car stayed in front of his car and was able to hold on."

Carl Edwards finished third on his debut for Gibbs, with Casey Mears having a strong run to fourth for Germain Racing, ahead of Kyle Larson.

Champion Kevin Harvick was fighting Edwards for third until a brush with Joey Logano on the penultimate lap caused him to smack the wall and fall back to 11th. The two drivers had a heated row about the incident in the pitlane afterward.

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Only 12 of the 25 entrants made it to the finish.

Fourteen cars were involved in the first race-stopping crash, triggered when Jamie McMurray spun mid-pack, and six sustained terminal damage, including Jimmie Johnson and polesitter Paul Menard.

A second red flag followed in the closing stages when Tony Stewart was sent spinning and collected Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch, resulting in a particularly violent impact for Biffle on the inside wall. His car then rebounded back into the out-of-control Busch's path and had another hard hit. All involved escaped unhurt.

"It was a matter of time that we were going to wreck," Denny Hamlin said. "We were side-drafting so aggressively from the first lap of the race... We were trying to get to front and protect our track position, because we knew this was coming. I just couldn't get there quick enough.

"When you hit the grass now, it's death. It tore the front end of the car off."

Brad Keselowski had been the first retirement, sent into the wall on lap 22 of 75, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun into Austin Dillon's path later on.

RESULTS - 75 LAPS:

Originally on Autosport.com

Quotes by NASCAR Wire Service