NASCAR Media Group compiled a list of the sport's 50 greatest races and gave fans the chance to weigh in and vote for No. 1.

With races dating from the Aug. 26, 1956, event at Darlington -- a victory by the legendary Curtis Turner -- to Juan Montoya's win on June 24, 2007, at Sonoma, the list encompasses six decades of great racing.

NASCAR.COM revealed the Top 10 during Speedweeks 2009:.

No. 1: 1998 Daytona 500

"Every which way you can, I've lost it," Earnhardt said. "Now I've won it."

No longer would Dale Earnhardt have to hear that dreaded question: "Will you ever win the Daytona 500?"

In the twilight of a magnificent career, Earnhardt completed his resume on Feb. 15, 1998, by winning the only coveted stock-car prize to previously elude him. On the day NASCAR began celebrating its 50th anniversary with the 40th running of the Great American Race, Earnhardt won on his 20th try.

This time, the man selected in a NASCAR survey as its greatest driver ever wasn't smoked off on the final lap. He didn't flip his car, and there were no blown tires.

"Every which way you can, I've lost it," Earnhardt said. "Now I've won it."

Then he reached into his uniform, pulled out a stuffed monkey and threw it on the floor.

"I don't ever have to answer that question again," Earnhardt said.

At 46, and with Jeff Gordon and other younger drivers now far more productive, many wondered if he would ever find his way to Victory Lane in the sport's biggest event.

As desirable as the Daytona 500 might have been, Earnhardt had reached the point where any victory would be a godsend. He was mired in a career-worst 59-race winless streak that spanned 23 months, so his 71st Cup Series victory was reason to celebrate, regardless of the venue.

Despite dominating the race on so many occasions, Earnhardt had known nothing but heartbreak on the third Sunday of each February.

• In 1990, he controlled the race for 499 miles, but ran over a broken part and blew a tire two turns from the end.

• In 1993, he led 105 laps, only to be passed by Dale Jarrett on the final one.

• In 1997, he overcame horrendous pit stops to stay among the leaders until a brush with eventual race winner Gordon put him on his roof.

To say Earnhardt had dominated so often is not sufficient. The hard numbers reveal just how good he had been. From 1987 to 1996, he completed 1,999 of a possible 2,000 laps -- 4,997 of 5,000 miles.

"It was our time," he said. "All week long everybody's been saying, 'This is your week, this is your week.' It was."

This time, he led 107 laps in his Chevrolet. But for the first time, that included the only one he'd never led -- the last one.

Earnhardt averaged 172.712 mph in a race slowed just three times by caution. It was the third-fastest Daytona 500.

The ride to Victory Lane was perhaps the slowest ever. Earnhardt exchanged high-fives with virtually every team as a roar of approval descended from a crowd of 185,000.

But numbers meant nothing to Earnhardt, who looked out the press box window as fans scooped up dirt his tires had dug up when he spun to put his car number -- 3 -- in the sod near the finish line. They treated it like hallowed ground.

To Earnhardt, the whole place was.

"There's a lot of emotions played out down here at Daytona with the letdowns we've had," he said. "It's eluded us for so many years."

No. 2: 2007 Daytona 500

Kevin Harvick never letoff the gas as he charged from 29th to first in 22 laps.

So focused was Mark Martin on hard-charging Kevin Harvick, he had no inkling of the chaos unfolding behind him.

With less than a mile to go in the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2007, Kyle Busch's car was spinning. Clint Bowyer's car was upside down and on fire. Five other cars bumped and banged, careening into one another in a smoke-filled mass of twisted metal.

With the checkered flag in sight, Martin simply came up short a mere length of a car hood in a wild, wreck-filled finish (watch video).

Harvick beat the sentimental favorite to win NASCAR's premier race, six years to the day after Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap. Just days after his death, it was Harvick who was hired to replace him -- and he rewarded Richard Childress with the car owner's second Daytona 500 victory; Earnhardt won the other in 1998.

"This had to be the wildest Daytona 500 I've ever watched," Childress said. "I kept my eyes shut there for a little while it was so wild."

It took several moments for NASCAR to declare the winner, finally giving it to Harvick and spoilind what would have been the biggest victory of Martin's career.

"I really wanted to win that thing," Martin said. "They were going to have to pry it out of my fingers, man."

Harvick did just that, never letting off the gas as he charged from 29th to first in 22 laps.

"My go-kart experience over the winter paid off, because I didn't let off the floor and we just kept hitting things and the wall and bouncing off everything," Harvick said. "But man, this is the Daytona 500. Can you believe it?"

Martin, making his 23rd attempt at a 500 win, could see the checkered flag when Harvick barreled along the outside of him. Just as Harvick pushed into the lead, Busch wiggled behind them and bumped into Matt Kenseth to start a melee.

Kenseth was spinning and Greg Biffle was, too. Bowyer flipped onto his roof and through the grass, flames shooting through the windshield.

But Harvick and Martin continued to race side by side, waiting for NASCAR to call for a caution. When it finally came, Harvick and Martin were at the finish line, and Harvick was just barely ahead. The winning margin was .020 seconds, and NASCAR had to review the tape just to be sure who was going to Victory Lane.

Harvick never doubted the outcome.

"I got so excited at the end of the race, and I knew we had won," he said. "I just didn't realize how excited I was, and I punched the dang mirror out of the car. Just overexcited, I guess. Knocked the mirror right out."

Martin finished second, followed by Jeff Burton, Mike Wallace and rookie David Ragan, the kid who replaced Martin when he left Roush Racing after 19 seasons.

Martin left the powerhouse Roush team because he wanted to ease his way into retirement, and he got the opportunity to do it with a partial schedule at Ginn Racing a second-tier team bought last year by a Florida land developer trying to satisfy his love of NASCAR.

The decision was questioned by those who wondered if Bobby Ginn could give the ultra-competitive Martin cars capable of winning.

Boy, did he ever.

"I haven't even seen the finish. It is what it is," Martin said. "We were inches or feet or whatever. We were short. It was so close, but it was second. I let it slip away, slip through my fingers, and I'm fine with that. I am very proud of what this team did for me this weekend."

No. 3: 2000 Winston 500

Dale Earnhardt's late-race dash resulted in his 76th Cup Series victory.

Team owner Richard Childress insisted for years that Dale Earnhardt could see the air while driving a race car in those huge, fast packs NASCAR is known for. Even though Earnhardt always rejected that as a reason for his prowess at Talladega and Daytona, he easily is the most successful driver at both of NASCAR's biggest and fastest tracks.

And Earnhardt's victory in the Winston 500 on Oct. 15, 2000, on Talladega's 2.66-mile oval made Childress' theory look good to a lot of people.

Even Earnhardt himself, who won 10 Cup Series races at Talladega and 12 in Daytona, was impressed with what turned out to be his final victory. ''I was very lucky. To think we could be 18th five laps from the end and win like that is beyond me,'' Earnhardt said with a shake of his head. ''As the day went on, we moved back and forth. Nobody had a dominant car that could stay up front.

''When we were behind there, it didn't look like we had the opportunity to win the race. I was just trying to get up front to get a top 10 or get back in contention.''

The Intimidator, who loudly proclaimed to dislike the horsepower-sapping plates used for more than a decade at the two big tracks, had to come from far behind in a very short time to get his 76th career win and second of the season.

After contending for most of the 188-lap race, Earnhardt fell victim to the shifting fortunes of a race in which upwards of 25 cars were constantly battling in a pack at the front of the field. There were 49 lead changes among 21 drivers.

After the leaders pitted during the last of three caution periods in the race, Earnhardt found himself 15th for the restart on Lap 174.

In heavy traffic often long lines of speeding cars running three-wide on the 33-degree banked oval Earnhardt slipped to 23rd and was still 18th five laps from the end. At the end of Lap 186, he trailed RCR teammate Mike Skinner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Labonte. By the time the lead pack got back around to the finish line, Earnhardt was in the lead, just ahead of his son.

As the leaders began the final lap, Dale Jr. wiggled and slowed just enough to hold up the inside lane and let his father, Kenny Wallace and Joe Nemechek get a little breathing room on the field. ''You're at Talladega, thinking you've got a shot to win the race, and he's just the master,'' said runner-up Wallace. ''He pulls down and he's got a guy behind him that pushes him to the win.''

Earnhardt gave a lot of the credit for the victory to Wallace and Nemechek, who helped push him to the lead. ''That's how I won the race,'' Earnhardt said. ''Those three Chevrolets worked together and went to the front.''

After moving ahead of the pack, Earnhardt then had to contend with the two Andy Petry Racing drivers behind him. ''I thought Nemechek and Wallace would draft back by me on the front straightaway because of the way cars had drafted all day,'' Earnhardt said. ''I didn't think one car could hold two cars off. But I worked up and down the race track and kept the air broke up and, somehow, I won it.''

No. 4: 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400

"He wasn't going to surrender the lead," said Ricky Craven (32). "Heck, I wouldn't have either."

Darlington Raceway's 100th race was one for the ages. Ricky Craven pulled off the most breathtaking finish, beating Kurt Busch by inches in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 on March 16, 2003.

The margin of victory was two-thousandths of a second -- the smallest since NASCAR introduced electronic timing in 1993. And it followed a slam-bang, last-lap duel that had everyone -- including Craven -- wondering who won.

"I'm not nearly as good as Jeff Gordon is here or David Pearson or some of these legends," said Craven, who got his second career victory. "But I'll tell you, I wouldn't mind running 36 times a year here."

Craven's crew chief, Scott Miller, came on the radio as the driver slowed and told him how incredible the finish was. "I actually got a little frustrated because I thought, 'Great, great. Glad we entertained you. But did we win the race?' "

Then Craven came around Turn 2, saw the scoring tower and the happy news -- his No. 32 Pontiac on top of Busch's No. 97 Ford.

"That confirmed it for me," he said.

Busch thought he had the race won only laps earlier when he made an incredible three-wide pass -- "I don't know that I've ever seen anybody do that here," said NASCAR vice president and former Darlington president Jim Hunter -- to take the lead from six-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon.

But Craven kept charging from fourth. He passed pole-starter Elliott Sadler, who bounced off the wall, on Lap 271 of the 293-lap event. Then Craven chased down Busch.

Busch, then a 24-year-old Roush Racing driver, had started the race from the back when his engine broke down in Saturday's practice. And now with the race on the line, Busch's power steering began to fail.

Craven slid closer on every lap, and finally pulled alongside Busch twice on Lap 291. As they drove into the first turn on the next lap, Craven bumped Busch and nearly sent him into the wall as he took the lead. Busch regained control of his car and bumped past Craven in the second turn, nearly putting Craven in the wall.

"He wasn't going to surrender the lead," Craven said. "Heck, I wouldn't have either."

Busch held on until the final turn when Craven moved to the inside of Busch's car and the two started bouncing off each other. Craven was barely in front at the end and gained his first win since Martinsville in October 2001.

Busch, who had lost a tight battle with Dale Jarrett at Rockingham earlier that season, was worn out trying to drive without power steering. But he was just as excited as Craven about the battle. "That was the coolest finish that I've ever seen and I'm glad to be a part of it," Busch said. "It's a bit stale that I was on the wrong end of it, but it was just an awesome duel between two guys that don't win all that often."

Dave Blaney was third, the best finish of his career, followed by Mark Martin and Michael Waltrip.

Darlington's 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval, is considered one of the most treacherous in the sport. Craven knows he'll never forget his magnificent moment at the "Track Too Tough to Tame."

"I'll be 65 years old. I'll be sitting on the porch with my wife up on Moosehead Lake," Craven said, "and I'll tell this story 100,000 times about how we won."

No. 5: 2001 Pepsi 400

Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 116 of 160 laps as DEI cars finished 1-2.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. extracted a storybook triumph from the tragic scene of his father's death, winning the Pepsi 400 on July 7, 2001.

Driving a white car on the same track where Dale Earnhardt's famed black machine had hit the wall five months earlier, Earnhardt Jr. dominated Daytona the way his father used to.

Pushed back to seventh place after a late yellow flag, Earnhardt regained the lead after just a lap and a half. A few laps later, teammate and Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip took the second position, then protected Earnhardt as he closed out the dramatic victory.

The celebration was an emotional outpouring fitting for the occasion, as Earnhardt Jr. finished his victory lap by spinning doughnuts near the finish line, just the way his daddy did when he finally broke through at the Daytona 500 in 1998.

When that was over, Junior emerged from the car, jumped to the hood and thrust both fists in the air, time and again. Waltrip joined him in the grass. Earnhardt Jr. hugged him, then did a mosh-pit dive into the crew members from all three Dale Earnhardt Inc. teams who mobbed him.

Also rushing toward the celebration was Chocolate Meyers, The Intimidator's longtime gasman, who was awash in tears, along with lots of folks on pit road and in the Earnhardt-loving crowd of about 180,000.

"I'll be crying sooner or later," Junior said. "I dedicate this win to him. There ain't nobody else."

The drama was set up after the third and final yellow flag of the evening, which came with nine laps remaining, when Jeff Gordon's car started smoking, due to a wreck just a few laps earlier.

Earnhardt Jr. took the green flag in seventh, behind Johnny Benson, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and four other drivers who weren't a factor until the late accident.

Darting in and out of the pack alone -- racing without the drafting help that is so vital at Daytona -- it took Earnhardt Jr. only 1 1/2 laps to overcome all six cars.

Sure, it was bold and exciting. It was also a practically unheard-of strategy for this kind of racing, where restrictor plates on the carburetors hold speeds down, and drivers who leave the pack without a partner often lose dozens of spots before they get back in line.

Naturally, that kind of unreal dominance left room for skeptics who wondered if Earnhardt's victory really was too good to be true.

"You don't go by yourself on the outside and make that kind of time up," said Johnny Benson, who led after the restart, but wound up finishing 13th. "But it's OK. It was good that Junior won. I know he wanted to win, and he got it done."

But Junior had the best car all night -- he led 116 of 160 laps -- and it took him very little time to prove it.

"My car was the best car here, I think you all saw that," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I was just trying to stay in the right line and keep the RPMs up on the car. It seemed like I could get out there, three or four car lengths ahead, and it would take them a lap and a half to catch back up."

Then, after he got the lead, he got the help he needed from Waltrip, who remembered the Daytona 500, when The Intimidator got credit for holding off oncoming cars to allow Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. to finish 1-2.

Never did Waltrip consider going for the victory.

"I just told him this was what it's all about," Waltrip said, of the postrace celebration. "He called me the Monday after the Daytona 500. Of course we were all grieving. He just said, 'I was committed to you buddy.' Those words kept going through my mind."

No. 6: 1979 Daytona 500

Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison go nose-to-nose (left) before Bobby Allison joins the fray.

It's considered to be the most pivotal race in NASCAR history, and the events that took place on Feb. 18, 1979, still resonate through the sport today.

The first live flag-to-flag television broadcast on CBS. Record ratings as a result of a snowstorm that blanketed the entire northeast portion of the country. A last-lap accident that resulted in a surprise winner -- and an even more surprising post-race altercation.

In one of the strangest races in Daytona 500 history, the wildest moment turned out to be an unscheduled tag-team wrestling match.

Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison smashed into each other while going for the lead on the final lap. When Bobby Allison stopped to survey the damage, the three began swinging fists and helmets at each other, leaving a surprised Richard Petty to cross the finish line the victor, ending a 45-race winless streak.

It was almost inevitable that Yarborough and the Allisons would be involved in a race-ending incident, because that's how they started their day, once a chilly morning rain ended.

"The Great American Gamble" details why the 1979 Daytona 500 changed NASCAR forever, tracing the individual stories of such legendary drivers as Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Darrell Waltrip.

• Buy the book

On Lap 32, Donnie Allison lost control and forced Yarborough and Bobby Allison to take evasive action, as all three cars spun through the muck and the mire on the backstretch infield.

Forced to pit to repair his waterlogged car, Yarbrough ended up losing four laps to the leaders. But he used a series of cautions to his advantage -- including making up three laps in a 35-lap span -- to get back on the lead lap for the final sprint to the finish.

Chasing the Allisons -- leader Donnie and the lapped car of Bobby -- but a half-lap ahead of Petty, Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt, Yarborough made his move on the final lap, diving below Donnie's car in Turn 1. Allison ran Yarborough down to the apron, where the two Oldsmobiles made contact, then slid up the embankment to hit the outside wall before spinning back into the infield.

All three cars came to a stop in the grass, where the melee ensued. Helmets and racing gloves became weapons as the Allisons and Yarborough kicked and clawed in the mud.

"It's the worst thing I've ever seen in racing," Yarborough said. "Bobby waited on us so he could block me off. It was evident. The films will show it. I had him beat. I knew how to win the race.

"They double-teamed me. My left wheels were over in the dirt, and Donnie knocked me over in the dirt further. He carried me on into the grass. I started spinning and Donnie started spinning.

"Donnie denied doing it. Bobby pulled up over there, and I asked him why he did it. He bowed up, and I swung at him. It was the worst thing I've ever seen in racing."

To no one's surprise, the Allisons saw things a little differently.

"Naw, I didn't block them," Bobby Allison said. "I wasn't even close. I rode up there after the race was over to make sure they were both OK."

"I don't think Bobby slowed down, and Bobby didn't move anywhere," Donnie Allison concurred. "Cale had made up his mind he would pass me low, and I had made up my mind he was gonna have to pass me high. I had already decided if he was going to pass, it was going to be on the outside.

"When he tried to pass me low, he went off the track. He spun and hit me. I feel like I had to keep from getting knocked out, and I didn't do that.

"When Bobby came over to find out if we were all right, Cale went over and punched Bobby through the screen. Then he came at me and started calling me names."

Petty, who had been running a distant third, suddenly found himself in the lead with less than two miles to go. Waltrip made a desperation move to the apron of the track in the tri-oval, but Petty stayed in front by a car length at the line.

"I had hold of my steering wheel, and I was going to cut it left if Darrell got any closer," Petty said.

Petty, who had offseason surgery to remove 40 percent of his stomach, was racing against the advice of his doctor.

"I'm on top of the world," he said. "The weather got cooler, and it was not an exhausting race. From a mental standpoint, however, it was rough. I thought it was the worst race I've ever been in, the way the cars were jumping around on the track."

No. 7: 2007 Subway Fresh Fit 500

At Phoenix in April 2007, Jeff Gordon tied Dale Earnhardt for sixth place on the career victory list.

The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team had kept a flag bearing Dale Earnhardt's famed No. 3 in its hauler since July 2006, just awaiting Jeff Gordon's next Cup Series win. It was a long wait, but the crew was finally able to break out the flag on April 21, 2007 after Gordon, getting a little luck and making a gutsy pass for the lead, grabbed the victory at Phoenix International Raceway.

The win by the four-time series champion tied Earnhardt for sixth place on the career victory list with 76.

After ending the 26-race victory drought, Gordon stopped on the front straightaway to pick up the black, red and white Earnhardt flag, holding it proudly out the window for his slow victory lap as the big crowd paid homage to both Gordon and seven-time champion Earnhardt.

"It means the world," Gordon said. "Holding that 3 flag, it's certainly by no means saying we're as good as him. I learned so much from him. We wanted to honor him. We've been holding on to that flag for a long time."

One of the first drivers to congratulate Gordon in Victory Circle was Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"That means the world to me because I didn't want to come across the wrong way," Gordon said. "We wanted to show tribute and honor."

Gordon started from the pole and led early, but he spent most of the 312-lap race following Tony Stewart, who appeared to be on the way to an easy victory. As the leaders began a series of green-flag pit stops late in the race, Gordon drove onto pit road at the end of Lap 283. As he drove slowly toward his pit at the end of pit road, a three-car crash brought out the yellow flag.

The timing was perfect for Gordon, who was able to finish his pit stop and head back toward the track before leader Stewart came back to the finish line, thereby keeping Gordon on the lead lap. When all the other leaders pitted under the caution flag, Gordon stayed on track and took the lead.

Once the green flag came back out on Lap 294, Stewart tried desperately to regain the top spot. As Gordon struggled to get by Martin Truex Jr., who had pitted before the yellow and was on the end of the lead lap, Stewart saw his chance. On Lap 299, Stewart squeezed his Chevrolet between Gordon and Truex and somehow drove to the lead. But Gordon wouldn't quit, staying on Stewart's rear bumper and then driving under him to regain the lead for good on Lap 300.

"I drove my guts out," Gordon said. "I've never had to work so hard." Gordon pulled away to finish about six car-lengths ahead of Stewart.

Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth.

No. 8: 1985 Winston 500

Bill Elliott kept his eye on the prize at Talladega, his second win in his quest for the Winston Million.

"Awesome" Bill Elliott proved his moniker on May 5, 1985, at Alabama International Motor Speedway. Sitting on the pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega, Elliott's Ford was the class of the field with a qualifying lap of 209.385 mph.

But once the race was under way, a broken fitting on an oil line dropped Elliott back into the fray. In the end, he rallied to win the fastest 500-mile auto race of all time.

"I didn't have any idea what was the matter, but I just felt terrible," Elliott said after the come-from behind victory. He averaged 186.288 mph in the race, which was slowed only by two late caution flags for a total of eight laps. The average speed buried the previous 500-mile race mark of 177.620, set in the 1980 Daytona 500 by Buddy Baker.

While the oil line was repaired, Elliott lost nearly two full laps during his 1-minute, 9-second pit stop. He came back onto the track on Lap 49 of the 188-lap event.

Elliott steadily gained on the cars ahead of him. He was back on the lead lap to stay when he passed Cale Yarborough on Lap 125. Elliott again charged past Yarborough on Lap 145 to regain the lead -- and he made up all that ground without benefit of a caution. The first yellow flag did not wave until Lap 159, when Geoffrey Bodine bounced off the wall in Turn 4.

The leaders pitted and Yarborough beat Elliott onto the track. The green flag came out on Lap 164 and Elliott took the lead for good five laps later, roaring past Yarborough and pulling away.

Kyle Petty nipped Yarborough at the finish line for second by about two feet, finishing 1.72 seconds behind Elliott. Bobby Allison and Ricky Rudd finished fourth and fifth, both a lap behind the leaders.

"That kind of a race is hard on everything," Elliott said. "When you're in the lead draft, you can relax a little once in a while. When you're behind like that, you know you have to get everything out of the car you can. That's what we did."

It was a very big payday for Elliott, who earned $60,500 for winning the race and a $100,000 bonus after his triumph at the Daytona 500. Series sponsor Winston put up $1 million for any driver who could win any three of the "Big Four" -- the Daytona 500, Winston 500, World 600 at Charlotte and Southern 500 at Darlington -- in a single year. The $100,000 was guaranteed for the first driver to win any two of them.

Elliott finished 18th at Charlotte but claimed the Winston Million after winning the Southern 500 on Sept. 1, 1985.

No. 9: 2001 Cracker Barrel 500

Was there divine intervention on March 11, 2001, at Atlanta?

In the wake of Dale Earnhardt's death on Feb. 18, 2001, at Daytona, Richard Childress Racing turned to Kevin Harvick to drive the team's flagship Chevrolet -- however, changing the number from 3 to 29.

Harvick had made his NASCAR national touring series debut on Oct. 15, 1995, at Mesa Marin in the Truck Series. He ran the full schedule in 1998 and '99 before moving to the Nationwide Series the next year. For 2001, team owner Richard Childress had planned to accelerate Harvick's development with several Cup Series races with plans to run a full schedule in 2002. Earnhardt's death changed all that.

Harvick had finished 14th at Rockingham and eighth at Las Vegas; Atlanta would prove to be the watershed moment for his career. The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 was held March 11 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was the third career Cup start for Harvick, then 25, after taking over for Earnhardt. Harvick was driving the same car Earnhardt had used to edge Bobby Labonte the year before.

There were 25 lead changes among 11 drivers. The last swap came on Lap 320, when Harvick nudged past Jerry Nadeau and Dale Jarrett. Jeff Gordon caught Harvick on Turn 4 of the final lap and they went side by side to the finish -- and Harvick won by 0.006 seconds, the then-second closest finish in NASCAR history.

"With about five laps to go," Childress said, "I just looked up in the sky and said, 'We need your help, old buddy.' I just kept praying for Dale to help us out. He gave us the help we needed. I can see that mustache smile right now."

Said Gordon: "There was a higher power that wanted to see that outcome."

Nadeau, Jarrett and Terry Labonte rounded out the top five.

"I don't even know how to put it into words, to tell the honest truth," Harvick said. "It took an extra cool-down lap just to get through the emotional part of it. I don't know how you could have scripted it any better.

"I was sitting at home watching this race last year and for it to wind up almost the same way is scary, if you think about it," he added. "And then coming into Victory Lane, with all those guys putting their arms out to me -- all those guys who have been through one of the most difficult situations and supported me through it ... all I can say is this one was for Dale."

No. 10: 1976 Daytona 500

David Pearson's clutch performance earned a spot in Victory Lane.

David Pearson, a three-time Cup Series champion who had a phenomenal history at Daytona International Speedway, won only one Daytona 500 -- but his victory in the 18th annual running of the Great American Race was perhaps one of the most dramatic in the 42-year history of the event that has become the crown jewel of the series.

Midwest veteran Ramo Stott started from the pole in a Chevrolet, but A.J. Foyt was the fastest qualifier with a lap of 185.943 mph in Hoss Ellington's Chevrolet. Foyt's lap was one of three that was disallowed on pole day, elevating Stott into the pole position.

Pearson, who drove the Wood Brothers No. 21 Mercury, led only 37 laps in the event in which veteran drivers such as Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker played a big part. But they, along with other stalwarts such as Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough and Foyt failed to finish the race.

With the exception of one lap led by 1975 Cup champion Benny Parsons, Pearson and Petty, driving the famous No. 43 Dodge, dominated the final 46 laps of the race, swapping positions three times. Pearson led from Laps 155-165, Petty paced 166-175 and Parsons led 176. Pearson and Petty led the next 11 and 12 laps, respectively, gauging each others' strengths until the final lap.

The last half-lap was a Daytona classic. Pearson used the draft to pass Petty going into Turn 3. Pearson slipped high after making the pass and Petty slid back underneath him. They ran side by side through Turn 4, before the cars made contact exiting the corner.

"I'm not sure what happened," Pearson said at the time. "He went beneath me and his car broke loose. I got into the wall and came off and hit him. That's what started all the spinning, I think."

Petty crashed into the outside wall, then spun into the trioval grass, scant yards from the finish line. Pearson spun to the pit entrance, made contact with Joe Frasson's car, then spun back toward the race track. Through it all, he engaged the clutch and kept the engine running. When Pearson straightened his car out, he was able to stagger across the line and win the event.

Pearson averaged 152.181 mph and won $46,800. Petty's crew attempted to push his car across the finish line but that was not allowed, so he was credited with second, one lap down.

Parsons, Lennie Pond and Neil Bonnett rounded out the top-5 finishers.

• Note: The complete list from which fans had to choose their favorite race: