Jimmie Johnson Wins NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 6, 2013
Photo – Getty Images

No one has done it since 1982; that is until this past weekend. Sweeping both Daytona races in the same season, Jimmie Johnson broke a 30-year dry spell Saturday night with his win in the Coke Zero 400. Johnson was up front all night and held off his competitors each time they challenged him for the lead. The race was classic Daytona with carnage and nail-biting racing throughout the evening. Restrictor-plate racing doesn’t get any better and this race proved Daytona night racing is fun to watch.

Lap 32 was when Johnson found the front for the first time of the night and he wouldn’t be away from that spot for much more of the race.

The first big wreck of the night occurred on lap 99 when Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Martin Truex Jr. crashed on the short-shoot off of turn four. Truex got loose and came down on Hamlin, causing Hamlin to spin and Montoya hit Hamlin on the side of his machine. Truex spun all the way down to the inside wall, just before pit road and hit the wall hard. Everyone was okay but, that wasn’t the last time Hamlin saw the wall in this race.

Another wreck broke out with 33 laps remaining, when a few separate incidents formed the big one. Marcos Ambrose got into David Stremme, putting Stremme into the wall and behind them; A.J Allmendinger spun and got into Aric Almirola. Almirola went up into Greg Biffle and they both had hard impacts.

It was getting close to crunch-time when the next accident broke-out, with 11 laps remaining. A huge incident on the frontstretch saw Denny Hamlin’s car get totaled along with Allmendinger’s machine. Hamlin got loose on his own and turned right up into the wall. Matt Kenseth had to turn down the track to avoid him which collected Jeff Gordon and David Reutimann, who were directly under Kenseth. Allmendinger had nowhere to go so, he plowed into Hamlin and so did Dave Blaney. This massive wreck brought out the only red flag of the race.

Once cars started rolling again, it was Johnson out front, but with new challengers, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart in the mix with his #48 car. Kasey Kahne was also there, but a costly mistake by Johnson took his teammate out of contention.

The sixth caution of the night was for Kahne when he got the short end of the stick in a chain reaction. Johnson got into Ambrose going down the backstretch and Ambrose got into Kahne, sending him into the inside wall. That destroyed his car along with his hopes of claiming his first Daytona victory.

Next, a green-white-checkered finish was in-store. The field made it cleanly back to the white flag, but then, everything started breaking loose.

First, cars were getting tangled up in turn two. Carl Edwards, Joe Nemechek, Scott Speed, Bobby Labonte, and Landon Cassill were racing hard for position toward the back of the pack and collided together going into the turn to cause another wreck.

NASCAR didn’t throw the yellow and the rest of the field raced back to the line. Johnson had a decent size advantage going into turn three and second place, Tony Stewart was never able to catch the leader. Johnson won, but behind him, “…all hell broke loose” according to Clint Bowyer.

It all started when David Gilliland turned Danica Patrick coming through the tri-oval and seven other cars wrecked past the line. Drivers involved were Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr, J.J Yeley, Casey Mears, Jeff Burton, and Terry Labonte. They all came home with decent finishes, but their cars were trashed.

Johnson started celebrating in victory lane while the clean-up continued and it was his second time to celebrate in Daytona this season.  Also winning in February for the 500, Johnson said this win was a little tougher. Everyone had the Gen 6 figured out this time, so it wasn’t as much of a laid back race.

Johnson and Bobby Allison stand together in the history books as Allison was the last driver to complete the Daytona sweep in 1982. A feat hard to accomplish since it was last achieved 31 years ago. Only three other drivers included in this historic accomplishment are, Fireball Roberts in 1962, Cale Yarborough in 1968, LeeRoy Yarbrough in 1969.

This win gives the five-time champion even more momentum in the Race to the Chase, since he’s doing all he can to take the number one seed. Win number four for Johnson may be plenty to give him that seed, but a tough challenge by Kenseth may force him to continue to go all-out for the top spot when the Chase begins in September.

Results via ESPN.com