Brad Keselowski had his confidence shaken at Daytona International Speedway more than once.
He was a good plate racer, but never could find his way to victory lane at NASCAR's most famous track.
That changed Saturday night with a dominating performance that gave Team Penske its 100th career Sprint Cup Series victory — a win that Roger Penske celebrated in victory lane by participating in the traditional champagne spray.
More important, it gave Keselowski his long-awaited first win at Daytona.
Keselowski led a race-high 115 laps then held off Kyle Busch on a two-lap shootout that sent the race into overtime for one additional lap. It gave him his fifth career Cup win in a restrictor-plate race, but all the others had come at Talladega. He won on the Alabama track most recently in May.
"I don't care if it's not the 500. It's Daytona. This is huge," he said. "I love this place."
He loved it even when he came up frustratingly short, or not even close at all.
Keselowski said his futility at Daytona was "a kick in the you-know-what," but he and his No. 2 Ford crew kept chipping away at it even after he had a disappointing run in the season-opening Daytona 500.
"I got down on myself here," he said. "We came down here for the 500 and quite honestly we ran like dog crap, but my team worked on it. I didn't give up on them. I believe in my team and my team believes in me and we went to work and we put together a better car, and it really showed with a great effort from the whole team. I'm really proud of everybody."
Penske said he was "proud to be an American" after winning on Fourth of July weekend.
"To win 100 races with the competition we have in this sport is amazing," said Penske. "Sixteen years ago we won our 100th race on the IndyCar side, it took us some time to catch up over here. Pretty important night for us."
The race was marred by a 22-car accident that collected more than half the field and thinned the competition for Keselowski. It really only left Kyle Busch as a legitimate contender, but a restart for a two-lap shootout that sent it into overtime forced Keselowski to earn the win.
He easily held off Busch, and challenger Kurt Busch was eliminated when he was knocked out of line by Joey Logano as they headed to the checkered flag.
"I don't remember a whole lot. It gets kind of crazy," said Kyle Busch, who crashed his primary car Friday morning and raced in a backup.
"You just tried to play it as safe as you could but as smart as you could, and being as aggressive as you could without trying to tear up any cars. If we could have got the 2 car out of there, it probably would have been a decent race, but that thing was just so strong that there wasn't much passing him.
"Really it took a lot of guys ganging up and getting together in order to make a move on him. He was pretty smart about where he positioned his car on the racetrack, and I could see that, and I tried to do some of those same things, but man, it just never really worked for me as good as he could handle it."
Trevor Bayne finished third and was followed by Keselowski teammate Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as Ford drivers took four of the top five spots.
Keselowski credited a push from his teammate for helping him shake the Busch brothers on the final restart.
"I was able to get Brad a good push to clear and get a Penske car to victory lane, which is really cool," Logano said. "The 2 was the fastest car and he deserved to win the race."
It was a plan to work together and disrupt the Toyota contingent that used teamwork to dominate the Daytona 500. Instead, Kyle Busch was the only Toyota driver to finish inside the top 10.
Kyle Larson was sixth and the highest finishing Chevrolet. He was followed by Austin Dillon, who ended last year's race in an airborne accident, then pole-sitter Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer.
Michael McDowell was 10th.
Tony Stewart, seeking his fifth victory in his final race at Daytona, was in contention until a late accident. He finished 26th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the defending race winner, but never contended Saturday night and finished 21st. He was involved in the 22-car accident — his third consecutive crash in a plate race — but was able to continue to the finish this time.
"Miserable night," Earnhardt tweeted. "Had some gremlins in the steering."
OTHER NOTABLES FROM DAYTONA:
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BUSCH'S BAD FINISH: Kurt Busch was briefly charging toward Keselowski on the final shootout, couldn't pull off a pass, then found himself turned into the grass when Logano hit him. It took him from a possible top-five finish to 23rd, and he called Logano's move "an aggressive mistake."
"I don't know where Logano wanted to go. He was going to go from fifth to first?" Busch said. "There's not a chance that he had enough to win it. We positioned ourselves to be the car to get a run off the bottom. And it just didn't work out with him trying to drive straight through us."
Busch's crew chief had much stronger words for Logano.
"Stupid is as stupid does!!!" tweeted Tony Gibson.
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STEWART'S GAIN: With 11 laps remaining and Stewart running fifth, his chance at a second consecutive victory blew up when he got loose and started a crash. Casey Mears ran into the back of him and Stewart's car turned into traffic then back into the wall.
"I got loose into one there, I just overcorrected there and drove it in the fence. My fault," Stewart said.
Stewart wound up 26th — but it was enough to get him to 30th in the standings. He's got to be inside the top-30 to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
"We knew we might be able to get points here, for us, it was more trying to take care of ourselves," he said. "I probably should have been smart and just sat back a little bit. But we were in position to get a top-five and had to take a chance."
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UP NEXT: A Saturday night race at Kentucky Speedway, which was won last year by Kyle Busch as he charged into contention for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. It's one of only two active tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule where Tony Stewart has never won.
