What's the latest the Daytona 500 has ever been? Fireballs, a pothole and a photo finish

The rain just didn't stop all weekend, forcing the second complete postponement of the Daytona 500 in history.

The Great American Race is now scheduled to start Monday afternoon at 4:30 p.m., with TV coverage starting at 4. But will it be the latest Daytona 500 in history?

That depends on how you're counting. It's got a couple of milestones to beat, first.

What was the latest the Daytona 500 has ever run?

In 2012 Matt Kenseth won the 54th Daytona 500 when he finally crossed the finish line at 1 a.m. Tuesday, but it took him a day and a half to get there.

First, the Sunday race got postponed for the first time ever because of, yes, rain. Then more rain on Monday turned the 1 p.m start into a 7 p.m. one, creating the first primetime Daytona 500.

Then there was the fireball.

Not that explosions and fire are anything unusual to NASCAR drivers and fans, of course, but this one was unprecedented.

The race was under caution on Lap 160 as the jet dryers, pulled behind pickup trucks, were on the track to blow away debris from a crash. Juan Pablo Montoya was racing his Chevrolet down the backstretch, trying to catch up with the field before the restart, when the rear suspension equipment on his car broke and sent him out of control. He skidded toward the wall at Turn 3.

Unfortunately, there was a track dryer there. Montoya hit it at speed and his wrecked, burning car slid down into the grass, jet fuel gushed out of the truck down the track and moments later a spark turned it into a raging wall of flames. (Neither Montoya nor the truck's driver were seriously injured).

It took two hours, five minutes and 29 seconds to put out the fire and repair the melted track surface before the race could begin again.

So, 36 hours after the race was supposed to start, Kenseth held off Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Greg Biffle to win the race.

What was the longest Daytona 500?

If we're talking number of laps and miles, last year broke the record. Previously it was 205 laps and 512.5miles, set in the 2010 Daytona 500, thanks to two separate stops due to a pothole developing between turns 1 and 2. Jamie McMurray finally won that one for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

But then last year, a crash in the second stage, two overtimes and a wild pileup in Turn 1 on the last lap with a finish under yellow gave Ricky Stenhouse the odd honor of being the winner of the longest Daytona 500 in history, at 212 laps and 530 miles.

What was the latest the Daytona 500 winner was decided?

For the very latest a Daytona 500 winner was decided, we have to go back to the beginning.

The 1959 race, the first Daytona 500 at the newly built Daytona International Speedway, was a normal one. Johnny Beauchamp's No. 73 Thunderbird seemingly edged out Lee Petty's No,. 42 Oldsmobile and NASCAR President Bill France announced him as the winner. Both drivers were clocked at an average of 135.52 mph.

But Bob Torbal of Duluth, Minnesota, an amateur photographer who was standing in the pit area right in line with the finish line, snapped a pic that showed Petty just a touch ahead as they crossed the line. With that photo, and testimony from others in the pit area, France canceled the announcement until they could have the photographic evidence analyzed by a newsreel company in New York.

Petty's win was announced at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1959, after the results were in.

Finish line cameras were added for future races.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500: Lengthy races, decisions have happened since the 1st one