Matt Kenseth capped a crazy 36 hours for NASCAR by winning the first postponed Daytona 500 in 55 editions of the marquee event.

Kenseth held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Roush Fenway Racing team-mate Greg Biffle over a two-lap finish in a race that was scheduled to begin Sunday afternoon but ended in the early morning hours Tuesday.

Rain at Daytona International Speedway first forced NASCAR to push the race to Monday afternoon, then Monday night for the first-ever 500 in primetime television.

A freak accident then caused a massive fuel fire that stopped the race for two hours as safety workers used laundry detergent to clean up the track.

When racing finally resumed, nobody could challenge Kenseth’s Ford as he powered to the win.

Australian former V8 Supercar driver Marcos Ambrose ran as high as second during the first half of the 200-lap race but finished 13th after being involved in a late incident.

The race’s major talking point came on lap 160 when Juan Pablo Montoya’s car sent him spinning under a yellow flag into a safety truck.

The truck, with 200 gallons of jet kerosene on board, burst into flames.

Neither Montoya nor the driver of the safety truck were seriously hurt in the spectacular crash.

“About the time you think you’ve seen about everything, you see something like this,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said.

NASCAR officials had to examine the scorched surface of the Daytona track before determining the race could continue.

“I’ve hit a lot of things – but a jet dryer?” Montoya said.

“It just felt really strange, and as I was talking on the radio, the car just turned right.”

In the race’s early stages, five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was an early casualty when Elliott Sadler ran into the back of his car.

The contact sent Johnson into the wall, and as he slid back down across the track, he was hit hard in the door by David Ragan.

The accident collected six cars total, including defending Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Danica Patrick.