Winn-Dixie 250

The Subway Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola is a NASCAR Nationwide Series race that takes place under the lights at Daytona International Speedway. It is held the night before the Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 on Independence Day weekend in early July since 2002. Its scheduled distance is 250 miles (400 km).

This is the final restrictor plate race of held each season for the Nationwide Series. Until 2006, there had been a different winner in each race. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. became the first repeat winner when he won the 2006 event.

The 2010 running of the event marked the first of four races using the Nationwide Series version of the Car of Tomorrow, other three being at Michigan, Richmond (September), Charlotte (October).

The event's inaugural race was in 1959, although without sponsors. In 1960, Jack Smith set a world's record for a 250-mile auto race; which was broken the following year by David Pearson, averaging 154.291 mph in a 1961 Pontiac.^[1]

Past winners

• 2005–2010 and 2012–2013: Race extended due to a Green-white-checker finish.
• 2007: Race postponed from Friday night to Saturday morning due to rain.

Multiple winner (driver)

Multiple winners (teams)

Manufacturer wins

# Wins	Make	Years Won
7	Chevrolet	2003, 2005–2007, 2009–2010, 2012
3	Toyota	2008, 2011, 2013
1	Pontiac	2002
	Ford	2004

Notable moments

• 2003: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. led all 100 laps en route to victory.

• 2004: First race in which the cars ran a roof spoiler. The last 10 laps involved several lead changes. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took the lead with 10 laps to go. With 3 laps remaining, Michael Waltrip and Jason Leffler passed Dale Jr., putting Waltrip in the lead. Leffler then went for the lead and the two cars raced nose-to-nose for over a lap before Waltrip cut in front of Leffler off Turn Two on the final lap; Leffler hit Waltrip and Waltrip's car spun into the inside wall. NASCAR kept the green flag out (there is often a caution flag when a crash occurs) as Dale challenged Leffler for the lead. Leffler swerved and Dale crashed into the wall in Turn Four, allowing Mike Wallace to pass everyone for the victory.

• 2010: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. drove a Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress and numbered 3 to an unchallenged win. It was Junior's final time to drive the #3.

• 2011: With the new two-car tandem draft in effect, Kevin Harvick Incorporated swept the top four positions in qualifying. The lead changed a then-race record 35 times, primarily between Cup drivers Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer as well as Nationwide series regulars Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Trevor Bayne, and part-timer Danica Patrick. Eric McClure crashed hard after contact with teammate Mike Bliss, requiring a trip to the hospital. At the end of the race, a multi-car pileup ensued when Patrick, who'd slapped the Turn One wall on the final lap, made contact with Mike Wallace approaching the start-finish line, enabling Joey Logano and Kyle Busch to slip by and finish 1-2.^[2] It was a crash reminiscent of the controversial Ernie Irvan crash at the 1991 Winston 500.

• 2012: Kurt Busch, fired from Penske Racing the year before for several off-track incidents, stormed to the win in the most competitive Daytona race for NASCAR's second-tier touring series in any of its varied incarnations (Late Model Sportsman, Busch Grand National, or Nationwide Series). The lead changed a series track-record record 42 times as on the final lap Busch roared past Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. pushing him; Austin Dillon in Richard Childress' #3 raced into the fray pushed by Michael Annett in a Richard Petty #43; at the stripe Dillon got hit and spun through the trioval grass as Sadler tried for the win at the stripe; Dillon spun back into traffic and a huge crash ensued.^[3]

References