Race winner Bobby Hamilton salutes the crowd after his come from behind victory Friday. High Sierra Photo

Jimmy Spencer drove to victory lane, but when the trophy was passed out, it was Bobby Hamilton that was declared the victor in a wild Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona International Speedway. Spencer appeared to initially be leading when the caution flag came out for a multi-truck accident just as the field took the white flag, but a television review sent Hamilton's team to victory lane instead. Hamilton becomes the first driver in the Truck Series' ten-year history to win from the last starting position.

Hamilton started the race from the 36th position after taking the past champion's provisional after qualifying, and often ran five or more seconds behind the lead pack in the early stages of the race. Following a caution with 20 laps to go, Hamilton made the charge from the back of the lead pack to run with the leaders, and moved side-by-side with Spencer as the accident broke out behind them.

"I love this track and we have faith in NASCAR to make the right decisions," Hamilton said. "When the lights came on I was in front and they told us to hang tight and be patient, and it worked out. We did 1,100 miles of testing and went through nine sets of tires working on race runs. That is what put us in victory lane here tonight. We didn't need to burn our tires off in practice here."

The night was punctuated by several spectacular crashes.

Rick Crawford was spun out of third position at lap 10, and as he slid backwards toward the tri-oval grass it caught air and bounced on to his roof. The truck flipped back on to its wheels and slid through the grass, and once it came to a stop Crawford fired it up and drove it back to his pit stall.

The Big One erupted just as the field was coming to the halfway point when Kerry Earnhardt got sucked around in traffic and collected several other trucks. Ron Hornaday, Chase Montgomery, Shige Hattori, Brandon Whitt and Todd Kluever were caught up in this accident and sent behind the wall for repairs. Matt Crafton spun through the grass but was able to continue.

After a round of green flag pit stops was interrupted by Mike Harmon's spin off turn four, several drivers found themselves trapped a lap down and raced in and among the leaders to get back on the leader's lap. On lap 61, Brendan Gaughan was fighting for his lap when he got loose underneath leader Mike Skinner and keyed a four-truck crash coming off turn four. Also involved was Bill Lester and Johnny Benson.

With 10 laps remaining, Chad Chaffin got bumped by Dennis Setzer and spun through the grass on the backstretch. Chaffin also caught air and did a spectacular flip through the air and landed on his wheels. He too cranked the engine and drove it to the garage. Also caught up was Terry Cook, whose five-race top-10 finish streak came to an end when he was eliminated.

The final smash-up of the day happened as the field passed under the white flag. Matt Crafton got loose underneath a three-wide battle for fourth and came back into traffic. He made hard contact with David Reutimann who then caught up Jack Sprague and several others. Crafton slide across the track and pounded the inside wall as David Starr, Johnny Benson, Casey Atwood, and Robert Pressley were caught up.

Spencer was credited with second, as Todd Bodine, Ricky Craven, and Ted Musgrave rounded out the top-5. Spencer fought back from a pass-through penalty for passing below the yellow line and Musgave recovered from a flat right front tire with less than 25 laps remaining.

Ken Weaver finished sixth, followed by Brad Keselowski, David Starr, Wayne Edwards, and Johnny Benson in tenth. Starr and Benson both crossed the line with severely damaged trucks after being caught up in the last-lap crash.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action next Friday night in the Auto Club 200 at the California Speedway.