Stewart, who pushed his buddy Earnhardt to victory a year ago, wound up seventh this time. But the 2002 series champion was upbeat.

“I think we ran about as good a race as we possibly could have run,” Stewart said. “At least we had a car that was good enough to lead laps. We got a good start to the season. I’m ready to go.”

Behind the three leaders, things got really wild, with three-and four-wide racing and cars banging and bumping off each other to the finish.

Among those bouncing off each other on the last lap were Stewart and Johnson, who wound up fifth. Stewart even gave Johnson’s car a parting bump on the cooldown lap, infuriating Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus.

The two drivers were summoned to the NASCAR office immediately after the race, but they came out together, smiling.

“Jimmie and I are really good friends and this isn’t something that is going to linger. It’s over with,” Stewart said. “NASCAR just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything big happening out of it.”

Scott Riggs finished fourth, followed by Johnson and Mark Martin in his last Daytona 500. Rusty Wallace, also in his finale, was 10th.

Unlike other races at Daytona since NASCAR began requiring the horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars, most of the race was run with the field stretched out around the 2½-mile banked oval.

The Monte Carlos of Stewart, Gordon and two-time Daytona winner Michael Waltrip, Earnhardt’s teammate, led all but 25 laps and spent much of the day in single file. Waltrip wasn’t around at the end because of an engine failure.

Things began heating up on lap 183 when Greg Biffle and Riggs bumped in the middle of a pack and ignited a nine-car crash that sent Scott Wimmer’s car barrel-rolling and then spinning several times on its nose. Wimmer was not injured.

The race restarted on lap 188, but several cars banged together before even passing the flagstand, sparking an eight-car crash on the main straightaway.

NASCAR managed to get that mess cleared in time for a restart on lap 196, but there was yet another caution waving on lap 198 because of debris on the track.

In a nearly identical situation last spring at Talladega, a heavily partisan crowd angrily threw beer and soda cans and seat cushions onto the track after NASCAR said Gordon was ahead of Earnhardt when the caution came out near the end of the race. Gordon went on to win that race under caution.

That reaction prompted new NASCAR chairman Brian France to change the rule and allow a two-lap sprint for the win when a caution comes out before the final scheduled lap.

The victory was the 70th for Gordon, who barely missed his fifth series title last year when he finished just 16 points behind Busch and eight behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson in the closest points race in NASCAR history.

Gordon averaged 135.173 mph, winning $1,474,466 from the record purse of $17 million.

“I didn’t know what the week had in store for us,” Gordon said. “I knew we had a good car. We hadn’t shown everything. I knew over 500 miles, with that pit crew, that team, that hopefully some patience would pay off there at the end.”

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