Jack Celebrates in Victory Lane. (David M. Vaughn Photo)

Prior to 2006, Jack Sprague never had much luck at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Even dating back to his first start here, in the NASCAR Busch Series in the early 1990s, Sprague was a quick study of the draft and ran competitively. He qualified on the front row his first time here, but was swept up in someone else's trouble in the middle stages of the race. That set the scene for the remainder of his career at Daytona, until last year.

In last season's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener, Sprague ran well but almost saw it turn awry late in the going; he got loose in turns three and four and made a tremendous save. He was able to keep it straight and collected a top five finish.

Apparently, after years of bad luck, that save was the impetus to get things on the right track. Even an off-track excursion down the backstretch in practice couldn't derail Sprague's juggernaut. He earned the pole in qualifying, and stayed in the mix all night long putting himself in position for another top five finish.

When the white flag flew, Sprague was separated from his first career Daytona win by the dominant driver of the night, Travis Kvapil. Kvapil opened up a two truck length lead down the backstretch, but when all was said in done, that big advantaged allowed Sprague to get a run off turn four. A big bump draft from fellow Toyota driver Johnny Benson propelled Sprague to the top through the tri-oval and the No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota nipped Benson and Kvapil at the line.

"I just can't believe I won Daytona," Sprague said. "I knew a Toyota would win here tonight, I just didn't know it would be me. I wouldn't be here without Johnny Benson giving me that bump coming off four. He hit me so hard it about knocked my teeth out. I thought I might have had it won then I saw a flash of red outside driver's side. But then I looked up and saw he didn't get past us and I knew it was ours."

Exciting three wide finish at Daytona. (David M. Vaughn Photo)

While elation was the keyword in the Sprague camp, disappointment abounded in the Kvapil camp. After dominating the preseason test sessions, Kvapil was again the man to beat as the season got underway officially. The No. 6 K&N Filters Ford was able to run at the front seemingly at will, and looked to have the race in the bag up until the final 100 yards. After being the meat in the sandwich at the line, Kvapil was forced to settle for third at the finish.

"I knew when I looked up going down the backstretch and saw how far ahead we were that I was gonna be in trouble," Kvapil said. "I thought I might be able to hold them off by the time we got to turn four, but he got a real good push and there wasn't much I could do. I feel like I let my guys down after having such a strong truck all month long. We're disappointed with the finish, but at the same time it's also a good way to start the season."

Benson was willing to settle for playing the faithful wingman at the finish, pushing his Toyota teammate to the win, but circumstances changed over the final few feet and he nearly stole the win. He ended up in second in the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota by just 0.031 seconds.

"I was doing my part to make sure a Toyota ended up in victory lane," Benson said. "We got a great run off turn four and Travis was a sitting duck. I've been in the same situation here before in the Daytona 500. I was leading in the only Pontiac being followed by four Fords. He was the only Ford against four Toyotas. I gave Sprague a shot and we both got a great run out of it. It was close there at the finish, I had to dip my tires on the yellow line to make it happen but we pulled it off."

The race itself was marked with several hard crashes that thinned the field considerably. The action started on the very first lap as a bump draft gone bad sent Mike Wallace headlong into the frontstretch wall. The first of the major incidents broke out on lap 24 as rookie Joey Clanton tried to answer the call to come to pit road. As he slowed off turn four, Jason White had no where to go and both trucks spun. Clanton spun down to the inside while White went back to the right and collected numerous others.  Also involved in that incident were Ken Schrader, Willie Allen, Larry Foyt, Tyler Walker and Aaron Fike. Clanton and Fike were able to continue while the others were forced to retire due to the damage. Clanton eventually went on to finish sixth and earned the Raybestos Rookie of the Race award as a result.

The next major incident happened when Terry Cook was nudged in a tight pack on lap 61, sending him head on into the wall out of turn four. Cook's truck erupted in flames as it crossed the start-finish line but no one else was gathered up in the crash and he was able to climb out unhurt. On lap 80, an identical incident collected Kelly Bires, but in the scramble to avoid his wounded truck Blake Bjorklund and Mike Bliss collided sending them both into the frontstretch wall.

The crashing was not done yet, as Chase Miller found the concrete coming off turn four on lap 89. Miller's truck bounced high into the air on impact, sending several drivers scrambling to avoid. Dennis Setzer and Brendan Gaughan collided trying to miss the crash and both went into the wall as well. No driver was injured in any of the several incidents. All told 12 drivers were forced to retire due to accident.

There were 21 lead changes among nine drivers, and the race was slowed 7 times for a total of 34 laps. The average speed was just 117.739 mph.

Next up for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is the San Bernardino County 200 at the California Speedway on Friday February 23. TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage starting with TrackSideLive! coverage of practice on Thursday, while Live! Bud Pole Qualifying coverage is scheduled for 4 P.M. Eastern. The green flag is slated for  9 P.M. Eastern.