DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

There was no fire or rain. Still, another frantic finish at Daytona International Speedway.

Tony Stewart emerged the winner, charging past Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth on the last lap and holding on as the challengers stacked up behind him Saturday night in one of Daytona’s trademark wrecks.

“I don’t even remember what happened that last lap,” Stewart said.

Stewart has 18 victories at Daytona, second only to the late Dale Earnhardt’s 34 wins.

None of Stewart’s wins are in the Daytona 500, though. Stewart is 0 for 14 in NASCAR’s biggest race of the year and was a non-factor in February, when the race was delayed a day by rain and then stopped more than two hours for a massive jet dryer fire.

“I wish I could trade a couple of these races in for just one Sunday race in February,” he said of the Daytona 500.

But he’s always strong in the summer race at Daytona, and this visit was no different.

Stewart qualified second but dropped back to 42nd at the start of the race because his time was thrown out by NASCAR after his Chevrolet failed inspection. He quietly rode around — which is his style at restrictor-plate races — and let Roush Fenway Racing teammates Kenseth and Greg Biffle control the front.

The Roush drivers thought they had the field covered — Kenseth led a racehigh 89 laps and Biffle led 35 — and they probably still liked their chances on the final green-white-checkered restart. Kenseth was the leader with Biffle on his bumper, as second-place Stewart was lined up with Kasey Kahne.

Kenseth and Biffle pulled away for a lap, but Stewart came quick on the outside, moved to the front, then crossed down the track in front of Kenseth for the lead. Seconds later, Biffle seemed to wiggle in traffic and cars began wrecking all over the track in what was tallied to be a 15-car accident.

The final results showed Jeff Burton came from nowhere to finish second in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, followed by Kenseth in a Ford and Joey Logano in a Toyota.

Stewart teammate Ryan Newman, who was involved in a pit road incident with Kahne and Jeff Gordon, finished fifth. Roush driver Carl Edwards was sixth and was followed by Kahne, Brad Keselowski in a Dodge and Michael Waltrip. Bobby Labonte rounded out the top 10.

Denny Hamlin, who battled a bad back all weekend, raced for the win late but was involved in an accident that dropped him to 25th.

Biffle, who was in third on the final restart, dropped all the way to 21st and said the accident started when Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave Kevin Harvick a big push, and Biffle turned in front of Harvick.

Roughly 90 minutes before the race, NASCAR announced AJ Allmendinger had been suspended for failing a random drug test taken last week at Kentucky. Penske Racing rushed Sam Hornish Jr. in from North Carolina, where he was in the middle of a live television show, to drive Allmendinger’s car. Hornish arrived just minutes before it was time to climb in the car.