Reed, Stewart take Daytona victories.

Chad Reed overcame a late-race crash to capture the inaugural night time running of the prestigious Daytona Supercross on Friday night.

In doing so, Reed became the first Australian to win the event and the first non-American rider in 30 years. He also delivered Yamaha its first victory in the 250 class at Daytona since 1999 with Jeremy McGrath.

The victory didn't come without a little late-race drama though as Reed took a fall on Lap 16 and saw his 20-second lead shrink to under 10 seconds. But Chad managed to hold on for an 8.742-second victory over Hondas' Kevin Windham and Mike LaRocco.

"I crashed in the back end," Reed said. "Something hit me right in the side and it just took my breath away. It's not a good track to take your breath away.

"I had a lot of fun," added Reed about racing in the dark at Daytona. "It was still hot and humid. It was great. It's kind of like what I'm use to back in Australia. We had a lot of open races with lighting like this. It turned out being a lot better than I expected. The track was definitely challenging. It was a bad situation crashing but I'm glad to be able to win."

Further back, Suzuki freestyle Superstar Travis Pastrana made his return to AMA race action at Daytona, running as high as second in the main before fading to tenth.

Meanwhile, in the 125 class, James 'Bubba' Stewart made his much anticipated first appearance at Daytona International Speedway and put on a dominating performance aboard his Kawasaki in his home state.

The 18-year-old, considered the fastest rising star in Supercross, took the hole shot and led all 15 laps for a 35.112-second victory, then celebrated by spray painting a No. 3 into the tri-oval grass in honour of Dale Earnhardt and giving away his helmet, goggles and jersey.

"I wanted to do a little burnout," Stewart said. "Everybody tells me that's a Daytona International Speedway thing. I spray painted a little number 3 out there just to represent Dale Earnhardt. I know this is his country here - a NASCAR place. I'm just happy to be on the same soil that he was."

Completing the 125cc podium were Suzuki rookie David Millsaps and Yamaha mounted Josh Hanson.

Stewart, who has now won all his four 125cc events this year, now has 15th career 125cc triumphs and holds a 41-point lead in the standings over team-mate Eric Sorby.