After spending much of the day racing just outside the top ten, David Reutimann mounted an aggressive push and piloted his No. 00 Aaron's Dream Machine from twelfth to fifth on the last two laps. The frenzied final laps followed an unusual Daytona 500 race that included two long red-flag breaks while track workers repaired a portion of the track.

"It was an up and down day," said Reutimann. "We didn't feel like we were the best at various times, but all in all the car drove good and the guys made good pit stops. We just kind of got up there when it counted."

Reutimann continued, "Our car liked the outside so we just kept pounding away on it. Low and behold in the end the bottom seemed to be better for us in that last little bit. It ended up working out. The guys did a good job with good pit stops and it's a good way to start the sea­son. Those restarts were just killing us toward the end and we couldn't do anything right and I couldn't get in the right line and things kept getting messed up.  Thankfully we got the Aaron's Dream Machine where it needed to be when it counted and it ended up working out pretty well and I had a good run coming to the start-finish.  I'm real proud of my guys.  I have to thank Aaron's, Tums and Best Western, Toyota and Toyota Racing Development because we had some good horsepower today. Top-five is a good way to start the season out."

Notes:

• Started 20th and finished fifth.
• Best career Daytona 500 finish as well as first  top-10 on the restrictor plate track.
• Restarted in the top-10 on the final restart and worked his way to fifth in a frantic final two laps.
• Aaron's team came very close to running out of fuel but Reutimann conserved just enough to finish.
• Raced in 20th at halfway mark.
• Capt. Johnathan Hillstrand of the Alaskan fishing boat Time Bandit from the Discovery Channel's reality television show "Deadliest Catch" attended Sunday's race and told Reutimann that Phil Harris, captain of the Cornelia Marie, predicted Reutimann would win the Daytona 500 shortly before Harris died on Feb. 9. Reutimann's Toyota carried C-post decal Sunday in honor of Harris. (See a photo.)
• Sunday marked Reutimann's 100th career start.