2005 Daytona 500

2005 Daytona 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 1 of 36 in the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
2005 Daytona 500 logo
2005 Daytona 500 logo
Date February 20, 2005 (2005-02-20)
Location Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.
Course Permanent racing facility
2.5 mi (4.02336 km)
Distance 203 laps, 507.5 mi (816.742 km)
Scheduled Distance 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching up to 72 °F (22 °C); wind speeds approaching 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h)[1]
Average speed 135.173 miles per hour (217.540 km/h)[2]
Attendance 200,000[2]
Pole position
Driver Robert Yates Racing
Time 47.793
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner Michael Waltrip Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Duel 2 Winner Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing
Most laps led
Driver Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps 107
Winner
No. 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network Fox
Announcers Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds
Nielsen Ratings 10.9/23
(18.7 million viewers)

The 2005 Daytona 500, the 47th running of the event, was held on February 20, 2005, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida as the first race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Dale Jarrett won the pole and Jeff Gordon won the race, making this his third Daytona 500 win. Kurt Busch finished second[2] and Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third.[2]

As the result of NASCAR's implementation of the green-white-checker finish rule the previous season, the race had three extra laps due to a caution with three laps to go, reaching a total distance of 203 laps and 507.5 miles (816.7 km). Because of that, this was the first Daytona 500 to go longer than 500 miles. It was also the first Daytona 500 to end at sunset, around 6:18 pm EST.

A crowd of 200,000 people were estimated to have attended this race.[2]

  1. ^ a b "Weather of the 2005 Daytona 500". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "2005 Daytona 500 – Racing-Reference.info". Racing-Reference.info. Archived from the original on 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2015-05-22.