Denny Hamlin celebrates his third Sprint Unlimited victory at Daytona. [Russ Lake Photo]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2016 edition Speedweeks at Daytona got off to an action-packed start with the running of the 75-lap Sprint Unlimited, a non-points exhibition race for 25 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars. Multi-car crashes and spins spiced the action throughout and when the dust settled, Denny Hamlin came home the winner for the third time in 11 tries, becoming the fifth driver to do so.
Driving the FedEx Express Toyota, Hamlin gave Joe Gibbs Racing its fourth win in the last five Sprint Unlimited events.
“This race is short enough for my attention span,” Hamlin said jokingly. “I’ve gotten better at Speedway racing the last few years and have learned a lot from my teammates. When you look at this race had my teammates not stuck with me, I couldn’t have stayed up there. It was a great team win. Our cars are very, very fast and if you put them in the right situation, you can see what they can do.”
Of the 25 starters, only four cars came away without damage. The final crash took place with three laps to go, sending the race into overtime and triggering NASCAR’s first use of its new overtime rules.
In total, 34 of the 79 laps were under the caution flag.
Finishing a close second was Joey Logano with Paul Menard, Kyle Larson and Casey Mears close behind. Twelve cars finished on the lead lap and 10 were eliminated by accidents.
“It was a lot of fun out there,” Logano said. “Overall with the speed we had, we were close at the end and almost winning it. I had hoped to get a push from Kyle Larson but he got loose. In Speedway racing, it is often hard to pass for the lead. I had thought on the last restart I would be able to jump out in front of the leader, but we didn’t lineup perfectly. Tonight was all about the trophy and we came up a little bit short. I am hoping to pick up where we left-off last year and am looking forward to the 500.”
Daytona International SpeedwayDenny HamlinFeaturedNASCAR