Denny Hamlin celebrates winning the Daytona 500. [Russ Lake Photo]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Running fourth on the last lap of the Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin powered past leader Matt Kenseth and pulled even with Martin Truex Jr. as the pair charged toward the finish line, edging the latter by .010 seconds for the closest finish in Daytona 500 history.
Until the finish, Kenseth led a single-line of competitors and seemed to be cruising toward his third Daytona 500 victory.
Also, Toyota-powered cars dominated the 58th running of the Great American Race, leading 156 of the 200 laps and often running in tandem and the well-known manufacturer won the Daytona 500 for the first time.
Winner Hamlin led 95 circuits.
Said the victor, “This is the pinnacle of my career, and it is the best. I mean, it’s just the best. It’s the biggest race of my life. The Daytona 500 is the pinnacle of our sport and I’m just proud to be here. This win is huge for Toyota and the team.”
Asked about the winning move, Hamlin said, “I don’t remember it honestly. I mean, I just remember pulling up in front of the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and him giving me a push and not letting off when he was pushing and ultimately that was the push to the victory for us. I know we got to the outside of the 18 (Kyle Busch), the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and then the 20 (Matt Kenseth) came up to block high. I saw that the middle was going to be the only way I could get around both of them, and we cleared the 20 and drag raced with the 78.
“With two to go, I said that we have to get the team victory no matter what it takes and I essentially was trying to go up there and block the 4 to keep him from getting to those guys, but he gave me such a strong push, I just went with it and we ended up with a victory.
“The last thing I wanted to do was wreck off turn four with my Toyota teammates and none of us win. We had talked about a plan overnight to just work together, work together and I’ve never seen it executed so flawlessly as what we did today.”
Mike Wheeler is the winning crew chief. “This is crazy,” he quipped. “You work all these years trying to get to this spot.”
For Joe Gibbs Racing, this is the championship team’s first Daytona 500 win since 1993.
“I am so proud of Denny and Mike (Wheeler) and for them to be together for such a short period of time, it is all the more amazing,” team owner Joe Gibbs said.
On the final lap, Kenseth attempted to block the fast moving Hamlin, only to slide up to the outside wall, losing ground and the race. He ended up 14th.
“Leading was the position I wanted to be in,” Kenseth. “I saw Denny had a run and he was going fast enough, so I tried to block him but couldn’t do it. I got sideways and had to get out of the gas. We were here to win and came up short.”
Driving the FedEx Express Toyota, Hamlin won his 27th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in 363 attempts. In winning the Sprint Unlimited a week ago and today’s Daytona 500, he became the sixth driver to score the double. Dale Jarrett did it last 16 years ago.
Truex finished second in the Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota, his first race since switching from Chevrolet.
“I did all I thought I could do,” he said. “He (Denny Hamlin) just side drafted and I just should have – I probably should have run him up a little bit more, but I thought we were close enough that I could keep that foot or so, but I couldn’t, so I lost it the last second. All in all, it’s been a rough week – we tore up some cars, we made it to the last lap on every race and this one we finally made it to the end. I am really proud of the teamwork today with the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and guys and for me that was a big step in getting this relationship kicked off. Congratulations to Denny (Hamlin). He just got me by a couple feet.”
Kyle Busch, who led 19 laps, ended up third and Kevin Harvick fourth.
Carl Edwards recovered from a tangle with two others on the 57th lap to garner fifth.
2015 winner Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 finishers.
Non-finishers included pole winner Chase Elliott and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., each of whom spun out on the front-stretch. Elliott had his incident on lap 20 and Earnhardt on lap 171.
Said the youthful pole winner, “I’m not sure, just got turned around there off of four. Got in the middle and got loose. Lost it and spun out. I hate it for everybody at less than 20 laps in and have something dumb like that happen. I apologize to my guys. We will try and get back out there I guess and make some laps.”
Earnhardt took the blame for his spin. “It caught me by surprise,” he said. “I was trying to side-draft a guy beside me and boy, it pinned the right front. We have been working on the balance all day. That was our problem. We really underestimated how important handling was going to be today. We were starting to move forward and get aggressive and I just lost it.”
Earlier, first timers Matt DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher crashed hard but walked away from their cars.
Six caution flags slowed the race for 31 laps.
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