Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins at Daytona in No. 3 Wrangler!!!! The most meaningful quote of the night came from a tearful Tony Eury Jr. upon Earnhardt Jr.’s win–“We lost everything here, and to come back here with that car number and win means everything.”

View more photos in the Daytona NNS Gallery.

The Nationwide Series debut of the Car of Tomorrow came at Daytona International Speedway tonight in the Subway Jalapeno 250, with series points-leader, #22 Brad Keselowski on the pole.

Keselowski would lead the field from the green before the first caution came on lap 8 for an incident in Turn 4 involving Baker Curb teammates,#27Jennifer Jo Cobb and #43 Johnny Chapman. #33 Kevin Harvick would take the lead on lap 12, and switch the position out with #60 Carl Edwards, #21 Clint Bowyer, and #18 Kyle Busch before the second yellow came out for #15 Michael Annett on lap 33.

By lap 50, #12 Justin Allgaier grabbed the lead, and the rest of the top-ten ran as #22 Keselowski, Busch, Bowyer, #20 Joey Logano, #99 Trevor Bayne, #33 Kevin Harvick, #3 Dale Earnhardt Jr., #7 Steve Arpin, and #38 Jason Leffler. Busch would take the lead ten laps later before Earnhardt Jr. would settle into the front spot on lap 70.

Debris caution for the field came on lap 71, and the #3 would continue to lead on the restart. By lap 75 of the scheduled 100 lap event the top-ten were Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Busch, Logano, Bowyer, Allgaier, Leffler, Keselowski, Ryan Newman, and Bayne.

The #3 maintained the lead, and with four laps to go, the #98 of Paul Menard hit the wall and brought out a yellow for debris, setting the stage for a green-white –checkered finish. Of the 29 cars on the lead lap, the top eight of the leaders stayed out, while a slew of others, like Busch elected to pit under the caution.

Green flag racing kept Earnhardt Jr. in the lead despite a late challenge by Logano, and he would go on to claim his sixth NNS victory at Daytona on lap 102. The rest of the top-ten finishers-Logano, #6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (top-finishing rookie), Keselowski, Harvick, Bowyer, Busch, #1 Ryan Newman, #16 Brian Ickler, Arpin, and #60 Carl Edwards. Keselowski now has a points lead of 277 over Edwards in Championship standings.