DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The shortest Daytona 500 in history left all but the winning driver feeling unfulfilled.

Michael Waltrip won his second Daytona 500 in the last three years Sunday when "The Great American Race" was stopped after 272½ miles.

	Michael Waltrip is happy to win at Daytona -- no matter how many miles were completed.

It is the shortest Daytona 500, replacing the 1965 race that was won by Fred Lorenzen after 133 laps. In its 45-year history, the only other Daytona 500 not run to completion was in 1966, when Richard Petty was declared the winner with two laps to go.

The 1973 Daytona 500 was scheduled for 450 miles as part of gasoline rationing during the Arab Oil Embargo.

When so much time is spent building up to the biggest race of the Winston Cup season, the teams and drivers are geared up for 500 miles of racing in the sport's centerpiece event. The fires of intensity, however, were ended 91 laps from the scheduled finish.

"It's bittersweet," said second-place finisher Kurt Busch. "We're happy with the finish and, yet, we're a bit disappointed because we didn't get to continue 'The Great American Race' like it should. It should be run for its full distance, but, yet, we're happy because our Ford finished second today and we had a lot of great competition."

Strategy is determined in advance, but race teams have to adjust because of the weather. It was obvious on race morning that the Daytona 500 would be interrupted by rain at least once. In this case, it was twice.

Some drivers thought when it comes to the biggest race of the year, NASCAR should have made every effort to try to finish the race, especially considering Daytona International Speedway has lights. But at 9:30 p.m. ET, it was still raining, and obvious this race wasn't going to last 500 miles.

"The fact that this is the Daytona 500 and you have to respect how long this race has been continuing on over the years and the prestige it has and, of course, the history behind it," Busch said. "I think Dale Jarrett all led us the right way in saying that we should try to complete this race, but Mother Nature had better ideas today. There's nothing that you can do to try to get the race in when there is rain on the race track and there are no special rules you should develop because this is the Daytona 500. We have to go by the same rules that every other race track has."

Jack Sprague is a three-time Truck Series champ who is a Winston Cup rookie this season. He has been looking forward to his first Daytona 500 his entire career.

Sprague finished 14th, the best rookie in the field. But he would have liked to have had a chance to race longer and finish higher.

"This is the big race that everybody comes to see," Sprague said. "They saw half of it. I guess bittersweet, like Kurt Busch said. We would have liked to see the race go the rest of the way. Maybe something would have happened to one, both of us, neither of us - who knows at this point? We know he ran second, I ran 14th. He's pretty happy, I'm pretty happy."

Jimmie Johnson has to be the most upset with the way the race had finished. He might have been declared the winner had he not been ganged up on as Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- who down two laps at the time -- helped his teammate make the race-winning pass by providing a draft.

Johnson is part of the Hendrick Motorsports contingent but did not have the benefit of having any of his teammates -- Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte or Joe Nemechek -- within distance to help fight off the DEI double-team.

"I would have loved to race until the end," Johnson said. "I felt we had a shot to win the race. We've been here for two weeks. This pays the same amount of points as Rockingham does next week. We need to get home and get ready for that. I wish we could have finished under green and been out there. That's kind of a double-edged sword."

During the second rain delay, Waltrip sat on top of his pit box with his wife, Buffy, enjoying the rain because it had the feel of victory.

It didn't matter to Waltrip whether or not it was the Daytona 500 or the Daytona 272½. He just wanted to be in front when the race was over.

"We just were goofing off, laughing about the opportunity that we had here to be winners of the Daytona 500," Waltrip said. "That's when we talked about. We don't need it to go on, we won, let's just stop now. Then I tried to explain to her that I'd win it anyway because I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't really know if I would or not."

Waltrip never was able to feel fulfilled after his first Daytona 500 victory. On the day of his greatest triumph, his team owner, competitor and friend -- Dale Earnhardt -- was killed just seconds before Waltrip drove under the checkered flag.

Sunday's victory gave Waltrip a chance to feel fulfilled as a Daytona 500 winner under happier circumstances.

"That chapter will never be closed," Waltrip said. "That's just part of my life. It's a part of who I am. That will never be considered a great race because of what happened. But, you know, I'm OK with that. I'm at peace with what occurred that day. When I won last July, it felt good to party here and celebrate and win. When I won today, it felt the same.

"But I will never close that chapter. I'm thankful for that. I never want to close a chapter on any part of my life -- especially not when it comes to losing my friend like that."

There were plenty of drivers who desperately wanted the Daytona 500 to continue so they could have a chance at victory. All were disappointed except for Waltrip.

"Oh, yeah, it's just ruining me," Waltrip joked. "You know what I heard? They're still going to pay me the whole amount (for half the race). That's kind of crazy, isn't it?

"This is Daytona, and this is the Daytona 500. I'm just honored to be the champion of it again. I mean, that's two, no matter what the official distance is."