Replay from 2013 makessome think Jimmie Johnson won Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Jimmie Johnson's phone started blowing up yesterday while he was sitting in his motor home -- nowhere near Victory Lane.

Johnson was hailed as the Daytona 500 champion all over the place -- he was trending on Twitter and even had friends congratulating him via text message -- despite the race being in a rain delay.

Showers halted the race after 38 laps. Fox Sports responded by showing a replay of last year's season opener, the one in which Johnson won his second 500 and Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first woman to lead laps in "The Great American Race."

Fox ran a crawl across the bottom of the screen, saying the 2013 race was being shown while yesterday's race was being delayed because of rain. But thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people failed to get the message.

"I hear I won the . . . Daytona500?" Johnson posted on Twitter. "Haha! I also have friends confused and texting congratulations to me."

Fellow drivers had fun with the widespread error, too. "Wait a minute! I'm confused, did @JimmieJohnson win or not?" Clint Bowyer tweeted.

Plenty of fans on Twitter were confused throughout the replay, tweeting along as if the race was live. Deadspin ran some of them under the headline, "Scores Of Idiots Don't Realize Fox Is Airing Last Year's Daytona 500."

Even NASCAR couldn't resist jokingly weighing in on the confusion.

"Congrats @JimmieJohnson amazing," tweeted Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice president of racing operations.