Matt Kenseth won NASCAR's season-opening Daytona 500 in Florida on Sunday when heavy rain halted the race after 152 laps, 48 short of the scheduled distance.

The victory was the first since Nov. 2007 for the Ford-driving former NASCAR champion, who started from the rear of the field after switching to a back-up vehicle.

"I was pretty miserable some nights because we just couldn't make our car handle," Kenseth told reporters.

"This back-up car is actually way better than the 500 car. I felt pretty good going into this morning, but I didn't dream we were going to win."

The 2007 winner Kevin Harvick finished second in a Chevrolet with A.J. Allmendinger third in a Dodge.

Kenseth took the lead on lap 146 and when steady rain began to fall, NASCAR officials halted the race for 16 minutes before calling it off. The victory was his 17th career win.

"Just to win a race after our year last year," Kenseth said.

"I didn't know if I was ever going to do that again and then to pull off the Daytona 500, it's just unbelievable."

Harvick had mixed emotions about missing out on victory.

"It's also kind of bittersweet, I guess you could say, for the fact that Matt Kenseth is the one that pushed me to my Daytona 500 win in 2007," he said. "It's kind of weird how that stuff works out."