With only 12 of the 25 cars that started the race running at the finish, Carl Edwards came home third in his first run in a JGR Toyota, followed by Casey Mears and Kyle Larson. Joey Logano was sixth, but a last-lap altercation with reigning series champion Kevin Harvick (11th Saturday), left those two drivers jawing at each other after the finish.
 
Logano was pushing Harvick after the final restart with four laps left, and Harvick felt the No. 22 Ford ran him up into the outside wall.
 
Kenseth was worried when he saw Truex back out of the throttle on the final lap.
 
"At the end there, Martin did an excellent job," Kenseth said. "He backed off me so far. I saw him letting off the gas before we got to Turn 1, and I was like ‘Ah, this isn’t good.’…
 
"I just decided I was going to keep going. He got a big run at me, but we just had enough speed that, as he starting getting closer to me, we started building a little bit of RPM, and I was able to make sure that my car stayed in front of his car and was able to hold on."
 
Truex didn’t get the help he needed from Edwards, who joined JGR during the offseason. But Truex was elated with the speed in his car after a very disappointing first year in the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet in 2014.
 
"I had more fun in the car tonight than I’ve had since 2013," said Truex, who raced for the first time with former team engineer Cole Pearn as his crew chief. "I only made one mistake tonight — and that was giving up the lead with handful of laps to go (Truex led for the last time on Lap 55). That’s what cost us the race."

An early incident that KO’d the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski on Lap 23 was merely a prelude to the main event, a 14-car wreck on Lap 45 that erupted when the field accordioned out of Turn 4 and Greg Biffle tapped Jamie McMurray’s bumper and sent the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet out of control.

MORE: ‘Big One’ hits 14 cars
 
Severely damaged in the accident that red-flagged the race for 15 minutes were the cars of McMurray, polesitter Paul Menard, Jimmie Johnson, defending race winner Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer among others.
 
Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took a ride through the tri-oval grass.
 
"It was a matter of time that we were going to wreck," Hamlin said. "We were side-drafting so aggressively from the first lap of the race… We were trying to get to front and protect our track position, because we knew this was coming. I just couldn’t get there quick enough.
 
"When you hit the grass now, it’s death. It tore the front end of the car off."
 
Subsequent wrecks eliminated Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon (Lap 62), as well as Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch and Biffle (Lap 68). The latter incident brought out the second red flag of the night, for 5 minutes 18 seconds.
 
"You can tell we’ve been cooped up all winter long and we’re ready to go," Stenhouse said ruefully.
 
Note: The first caution of the race produced the first use of NASCAR’s new pit road technology. Cameras flagged infractions by McMurray’s crew (over the wall too soon) and driver Ryan Newman (passing through too many pit boxes), and officials on computer monitors in a NASCAR trailer confirmed the violations.

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RELATED: See the best photos from Saturday’s race

Stewart was running inside the top three at the time of the wreck, when he appeared to get loose and then made contact with Greg Biffle. The red flag was withdrawn within a few minutes.

Biffle took a hard hit into the wall from the wreck.

Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch were also involved in the accident.

Gordon finished seventh, Kyle Busch finished eight and Stewart finished 13th, while Biffle was 14th and Kurt Busch was 15th.

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The incident on Lap 62 brought Patrick to pit road quickly, and she would lose a lap. She had spent some of the race running in the top five but had to make multiple pit stops to repair the damage.


Stenhouse Jr. smacked the wall, while Dillon went for a spin after the two made contact. Both Stenhouse Jr. and Dillon’s car suffered enough damage to put them several laps down.

Patrick would go on to finish the race in 10th place, while Stenhouse Jr. and Dillon would finish 16th and 17th, respectively, 14 laps down.

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According to the former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champ, there wasn’t much to see.
 
"The wall," Keselowski said, regarding his line of sight. "I don’t know. I really need to see a replay to give an honest answer. The car is tore up so we are out but it was fast, so that was good."
 
The first melee of the 75-lapper was sparked by a collision between Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chevrolet and Keselowski’s No. 2 in the short chute before the start-finish line. Though Larson, last year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year, was able to continue, Keselowski’s car shuffled down into the trioval grass before making hard contact with the outside wall.
 
"Sorry, man. Larson came up on me," Keselowski radioed to his crew, before making the mandatory trip to the infield care center. Keselowski was uninjured, evaluated and released.
 
Though his stint in the race was a short one, Keselowski gave a thumbs-up to how his car felt in race conditions.

"Well, there wasn’t much different about this package," he said. "It is more the intermediate and short track stuff but I thought it was good. It was pretty racey out there."

Lead some laps and then wrecked; that’s how plate racin goes… Happy and proud of my guys for the fast car. Time to focus on #DAYTONA500

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) February 15, 2015

Keselowski hit the showers early for a 25th-place finish, well before the non-points race drew to a close. But though he was resigned to his Saturday night fate, he said he’s optimistic for the balance of the schedule, which culminates in the Feb. 22 Daytona 500 (1 p.m. ET, FOX).
 
"It’s part of racing at Daytona," said Keselowski, who led two laps after starting fourth. "Really happy with the speed of the Miller Lite Ford. We’ve got a lot of racing left in Speedweeks, this is just a preliminary and we’ll be ready to go when it counts in the 500."

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