'Pandemonium. Chaos.' Huge pile-up on final lap of Daytona 500 as Michael McDowell emerges as shock winner – dramatic pictures

Michael McDowell emerged from an huge final-lap crash to clinch a shock win in Sunday's Daytona 500.

The victory at Daytona International Speedway was McDowell's first in the Nascar Cup Series in 357 starts.

The Front Row Motorsports driver was running third behind Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski on the final lap when he bumped Keselowski from behind, who then hit Logano and sent both into spinning, flaming wrecks that took out both cars and a couple of others. Everyone somehow managed to escape unhurt form the carnage.

Neither Keselowski nor Logano had any regrets about the ending.

"Wanted to make the pass to win the Daytona 500 and it ended up really bad," Keselowski said. "I don't feel I made a mistake but I can't drive everybody else's car. Frustrating."

Asked what happened, Logano said: "Pandemonium, I guess. Chaos struck. It seemed like we all just collided in one spot. It’s a real bummer that none of the Penske cars won, but at least a Ford won and I’m really happy for McDowell."

As for 36-year-old McDowell, he said: "I just can't believe it. So many years just grinding it out hoping for an opportunity like this.

"Not everybody makes it to victory lane and for 14 years I didn't, so just to be here now is just so amazing."

The race marked the debut of the 23XI team owned by basketball superstar Michael Jordan and Hamlin, driven by Bubba Wallace. Wallace finished 17th but ran near the front for much of the second stage and led one lap.

The race was delayed for five hours due to heavy rain, and the bad weather came after another dramatic wreck just 14 laps into the race.

The crash involved 16 cars and took out drivers including Martin Truex, Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman, Alex Bowman, Matt DiBenedetto, Erik Jones, Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney. No one was seriously injured in the wrecks.