0.02 and a cloud of dust

Sunday was the sixth anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s slamming into the Turn 4 wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500, a crash that cost the legendary stock car driver his life.

Six years later, Kevin Harvick, the Bakersfield driver who succeeded Earnhardt behind the wheel of owner Richard Childress’ Chevrolet, won one of the closest Daytona 500s in history after catching Mark Martin in Turn 4 on the last lap.

It also was one of the most crash-filled 500s in its 49-year history, with several multicar wrecks late in the race -- after night had fallen and the lights had gone on -- at the high-banked, 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.

“This had to be the wildest Daytona 500 I think I ever watched,” said Childress, who has seen more than 30 of them.

The next-to-last crash, which eliminated Dale Earnhardt Jr., and several others, occurred with five laps left in the 200-lap event.

So the series’ season opener ended with a two-lap overtime shootout under NASCAR’s “green-white-checkered” format.

As the field barreled down the back straightaway for the final time on a chilly, windy day in front of a sellout crowd of 185,000, Martin appeared to have the upper hand, leading Kyle Busch on the inside lane.

Martin, 48, also was the sentimental favorite of many fans. After more than 20 years of driving Fords for what is now Roush Fenway Racing, he had never won the Daytona 500, and this year he moved to Ginn Racing to drive a limited schedule in a Chevy.

But Harvick, 31, stormed up to Martin on the outside, then nipped the veteran driver by less than half a car length for his first Daytona 500 win. The margin of victory was 0.02 of a second, the smallest since NASCAR introduced electronic scoring in 1993.

“I was coming like a freight train,” Harvick said. “I knew I was going to be the bad guy at the end, with Mark leading.”

And as they raced to the finish line, yet another crash unfolded just behind them that involved several drivers, including Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, three-time 500 winner Jeff Gordon and Harvick’s teammate Clint Bowyer, whose Chevy flipped over on its roof, caught fire and then turned back on its wheels. Bowyer was unhurt.

“A bunch of demons came out when it got dark,” Harvick said. “All hell broke loose after that. Everybody was two-wide, three-wide. It was just sort of survival of the fittest.”

Indeed, Martin was asked if perhaps he should have challenged Harvick’s win. Under NASCAR’s rules, the field is normally frozen at the moment a yellow flag is thrown, and it appeared that the crash had started before Harvick overtook Martin.

In fact, Martin was heard saying on his radio, “They waited. They waited. We were ahead. They just left the green out while they were wrecking.”

That was precisely the case, but Martin later rejected the idea of any challenge.

“No one wants to hear a grown man cry,” he said. “[NASCAR] made the decision, and that’s what we’re going to live with.”

He added, “It isn’t over until it’s over, and I never saw a yellow flag and I kept racing with everything that I had. All I was looking at was the start-finish line.”

For Harvick, it was the 11th Cup victory of his career in 179 starts, a day after he had won NASCAR’s Busch Series season opener here.

Harvick, having started 34th in the 43-car field, set the record for coming from the farthest back in the field to win the 500. He was still 29th with only 20 laps left and yet managed to catch the leaders.

Harvick also became the third consecutive California native to win the 500. Jimmie Johnson of El Cajon won last year, and Gordon, of Vallejo, won in 2005.

Another Californian, newcomer David Gilliland of Riverside, started on the pole in a Ford for Robert Yates Racing in his first 500 and then made a strong comeback from a pit-road mishap that dropped him to the rear. He finished eighth.

Another rookie in the race, former Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya, wasn’t as fortunate. He lagged for much of the race in an ill-handling Dodge owned by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates but, after all the accidents, finished 19th.

The first three-quarters of the race was fairly uneventful, but that changed with 47 laps left when the two leaders at the time, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, touched and crashed into the Turn 4 wall.

The crash ended Stewart’s hope of finally winning the 500 in his ninth try for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed right now,” said Stewart, the 2005 Nextel Cup champion who finished last after having one of the strongest cars in the preliminary races leading to the 500.

Busch’s Dodge returned to the race but finished 41st, and the crash also meant that his owner, Roger Penske, still hasn’t won the Daytona 500.

Johnson, who also is the reigning series champion, triggered a multicar accident on the back straightaway with 27 laps left that collected, among others, Denny Hamlin, David Reutimann and Tony Raines. Johnson wound up 39th.

Toyota, meanwhile, completed its first Cup race, but none of the four Camrys finished in the top 20. The highest, 22nd, was the one driven by Dale Jarrett of Michael Waltrip Racing.

Waltrip, at the center of a cheating scandal that rocked the sport last week, finished 30th.

A total of six crew members from Waltrip’s team and two others were suspended, and NASCAR issued fines totaling $250,000.

In an unprecedented move, NASCAR also deducted title points from the drivers before the season had started: 100 from Waltrip, 50 each from Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne and 25 each from Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs.

Harvick, asked if the exciting finish Sunday might help offset the cheating controversy, said, “Any time there’s a good race on the racetrack, it will help mend things.

“But I think it’s going to take a little bit to get over some of the issues that happened.”

And Childress said that despite Harvick’s victory, it wouldn’t erase the memories -- good and bad -- of Earnhardt at Daytona.

The win “gives me thoughts back to our win here [with Earnhardt] in ‘98, and we’re cherishing the moment of winning this Daytona 500,” Childress said. “I know Dale is proud of everything we’ve done.”

There were 13 lead changes among nine drivers and six caution periods.

The series next moves to California Speedway in Fontana for the Auto Club 500 next Sunday.

james.peltz@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Victory Lane

Bakersfield’s Kevin Harvick edged Mark Martin to win the Daytona 500 on Sunday. The top three finishers with start positions in parentheses:

First

KEVIN HARVICK

Chevrolet (34)

*

Second

MARK MARTIN

Chevrolet (26)

*

Third

JEFF BURTON

Chevrolet (7)