2005 DAYTONA 500

"I am so stoked ... I was trying to pass so many people. I thought Tony Stewart was going to be the guy. And he held us off for so long. I had three shots at him and he drove a great race car. It was fun racing him. Dale Jr. came out of nowhere. He was just hanging back there all day until it really counted. And I was worried. He pushed me a couple of times. I thought there was no way I was going to be able to keep him behind me. When he got the lead, I thought it was all over. I've got to thank Jimmie Johnson. He gave me a couple of great pushes ... this win is dedicated to those families who were part of the tragic loss last year. It's something we'll never forget. Days like today allow us to honor them that much more and we're thankful that we're in victory lane and can talk about them and honor them."

2005 DAYTONA 500

47th Daytona 500 - "Great American Race"

RACE: 2 pm FEB 20, 2005

Daytona International Speedway

2004 winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Entry: top 35 drivers from last season are guaranteed a spot

RACE RESULT: DAYTONA 500

1 Jeff Gordon , Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, 203 laps

2 Kurt Busch, Ford +0.158s
"We were in great position to be able to win the race," said Busch. "We kept moving towards the front all day, we had very timely pit stops and we're able to stay in the lead bunch. With a green-white-checker finish you always look to see where you can punch a hole"

3 Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet
"We struggled all day with the car it wouldn't turn, at one point there we were just terrible ... I don't know how we didn't loose the draft and get lapped. I got the car handling good and we just drove right up through there. I got a lot of help from Greg Biffle to get into the top ten"

4 Scott Riggs , Chevrolet

5 Jimmie Johnson , Chevrolet

6 Mark Martin , Ford

7 Tony Stewart

8 Sterling Marlin

9 Kevin Lepage

10 Rusty Wallace

11 Sadler 12 Edwards 13 Nemechek 14 Blaney 15 Jarrett 16 Green

DNF: Labonte, Kenseth , Waltrip, Truex Jr.

JARRETT ON POLE

JARRETT (FORD): "This is great for our team ... Mike Ford started building this car last October and they did a fantastic job ... These guys have been working on this race car since last October. It's been in the wind tunnel a lot and we had a good test back here in January. The engine room has been working night and day making these engines even better than what we've had before ... I think we can be considered a car to beat on Sunday ... What helps is that when you are a fast race car people tend to go with you more. This car drives much better in the draft than the car we had last night (Budweiser Shootout)."

Jarrett previously won in 2000, 1996, 1993

GRID: 43 cars

1 Dale Jarrett, No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford, 47.793 sec (188.312 mph)

2 Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet 47.829s
"I knew that we could run an 80 again we felt really comfortable with the time we ran yesterday ... I had mixed emotions going into it but I went in with an open mind ... To come out second was a little bit of a surprise we hadn't been concentrating on qualifying"

3 Michael Waltrip , Chevrolet *** winner Dayton aTwins Race 1 ***

4 Tony Stewart , Chevrolet *** winner Dayton aTwins Race 2 ***

5 Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet

6 Jeff Burton , Chevrolet

7 Mike Skinner , Dodge

8 Kevin Lepage , Dodge

9 Ryan Newman , Dodge

10 Martin Truex Jr. , Chevrolet

11 Rudd 12 Riggs 13 Kurt Busch 14 Kenseth 15 Gordon 16 Wimmer 17 McMurray 18 Marlin 19 Kyle Busch 20 Labonte

2005 NASCAR