Dillon’s car was collected in a massive multi-car accident just after the field was taking the checkered flag. His car was on the bottom groove of the track when it was hit and launched over two lines of cars into the frontstretch catchfence, which "caught" the car and dropped it back on track, where it came to rest upside down on a paved area between the racing surface and the end of pit road.

After the No. 3 car stopped, multiple crew members rushed over from their pit road position to offer Dillon assistance and help extricate him from the wreckage.

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Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood said 13 fans in the grandstands were seen after the accident that occurred at the start/finish line as the checkered flag fell. Of them, eight declined treatment, four were treated at the track and one person was transported to a hospital in stable condition and later released.

"I am just going to be really sore,” Dillon said after his check-up in the care center. "It got my tailbone pretty good and my arm. Should be fine, just go ice it up and get ready for Kentucky. 

"But just thank the good Lord for taking care of me and for what NASCAR has done to make the sport this much safer. I just hope everybody in the stands is all right. That is the next biggest concern. Just praying for everybody and glad the good Lord looked out for me tonight."

As for the accident, Dillon thought he was going to be home free initially, able to avoid the spinning, colliding cars in front of him where the incident initiated.

"You know the 11 (of Denny Hamlin) got turned by the 4 (of Kevin Harvick) across the start/finish line and I thought the race was going to be over right there,” said Dillon, who was credited with a seventh-place finish. "We were almost there and I was just pushing the 24 (of Jeff Gordon) and the next thing I knew was that I was looking at my roof for a long time.  I thought it was all over when I was sliding there and the 2-car (of Brad Keselowski) came in and really got me."

The incident was obviously on the minds of most drivers after the race.

"Clearly thinking about the accident that happened and the people in the stands,” race runner-up Jimmie Johnson said. "Sounds like things are well up there, which is shocking. Just a frightening moment. I saw it in the mirror (and) expected the worst when I came back around."

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After the cool-down lap Johnson got out of his car and discussed the accident with race winner — and Hendrick Motorsports teammate — Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"You’re just on the verge of tears to be honest with you. I saw everything through the (rearview) mirror pretty clearly and that car went up in the air pretty high and I saw a black object hit the fence,” said Earnhardt, whose team members were among the first to get to Dillon. "I was just very scared for that person at the time, I didn’t even know which driver it was. When you see it that high, you worry about whether there was any danger for the spectators.

"I didn’t care about anything except making sure that person was OK, that everyone was OK. The racing doesn’t matter anymore.”

Driver David Ragan‘s No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota was one of the cars that Dillon’s Chevy launched over.

"It’s a recipe for disaster coming to the start/finish line three-wide, it’s a vulnerable spot coming through the tri-oval,” Ragan said. "You can’t see more than one car in front of you and a shame to tear up all those race cars after the checkered flag. But when someone gets spun and comes back up into the traffic there’s nowhere to go, and eight or 10 cars get caught up pretty quick.

"I saw them wrecking below and I thought we might get out of it, but it happened so quick. I saw a black colored car come across our left front headlight and roll over me. I knew it was going to be a spectacular crash.”

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Acknowledging the inevitable discussion about the safety of restrictor-plate racing and the frenzy induced on a green-white-checkered flag finish, Earnhardt said he remains convinced that crashes are invariably a hard-to-control variable.

"It’s just a product of going 200 miles an hour,” Earnhardt said. "These cars are going fast, and when you put them in odd, rare circumstances like that, they’re going to go up in the air. We do everything we can and have made a lot of changes and incorporated a lot of things into these cars to try to keep them on the ground, but you never can ‑‑ in those imperfect situations, there’s not much you can do about it.

"It looked like that car just caught someone in the right position to get air under it, and it just lifted it right up in the air. I haven’t even seen the wreck, and I don’t even know if I want to see it.

"Racing has always been very dangerous. Fortunately for us we’ve gotten better and safer in the last 100 years. It’s changed tremendously."