DAYTONA BEACH FL- Denny Hamlin was one of the favorites all week and Sunday he proved why. Hamlin made a late race charge to win Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500 by the closest finish in the long storied history of NASCAR’s biggest race. It was the first win for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Daytona 500 in 23 years. The win was the 23rd of Hamlin’s career.
The win was also the first for Toyota after 10 attempts. Hamlin, who won the Sprint Unlimited the week prior, led the most laps Sunday but found himself outside the top five in the waning laps. He was forced to make a furious charge to the front and pass fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. as the two streaked towards the checkered flag. Hamlin was able to get the job done edging Truex by .001of a second.
“This is the best,” Hamlin said. “I mean, it’s just the best. It’s the biggest race of my life. The Daytona 500 is – as a kid what you – this is the pinnacle of our sport and I’m just proud to be here.”
Hamlin’s job was made a bit less stressful thanks to the retirement of another favorite earlier in the event. On lap Dale Earnhardt Jr. a perennial Daytona favorite saw his day end on lap 170 when he went for a solo spin exiting turn 4. He avoided contact with other cars but not the inside wall and after careening into the concrete slid to a stop in the infield grass at the entrance to pit road. Earnhardt was uninjured, but his race was over.
Near the start of the race rookie Chase Elliott starting his first race as a fulltime driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series from the pole, saw his hopes for a Daytona 500 end. Elliott who won the XFINITY series race the day prior, was in a three wide battle for position on lap 19 when he lost control exiting turn 4. As he spun he clipped the nose of the car driven by Carl Edwards and ended with a slide into the infield grass. He would return many laps down and finished 37.
The winning move for Hamlin started with a pit road miscue during the last round of pit stops.
“I got cocky,” Hamlin said. “I mean, sitting over the radio, beating everyone off pit road every time we’ve ever had a green flag pit stop or caution, I beat everyone off pit road, I’m sitting here like, I’m the pit road master. Then I come in there and blow it and screw my tires up on the last stop that actually counts. I’m glad, quick thinking, telling Wheels, I slid them, I don’t know which one. He made a quick audible.
“The preparation was great,” he added. “My team was ready for anything. We didn’t lose that lead draft, even taking four tires, when everyone in front of us essentially took two. So my team was ready. The pit crew nailed a great stop to get us out there quick. day. “
Hamlin was forced to fight his way from outside the top five and was forced to use the outside line that hadn’t worked all day. As Hamlin used that outside line Sunday he got a push from Kevin Harvick that allowed him to get to the front.
On the final lap, leader Kenseth came up to try and block Hamlin. Hamlin was able to slip by and later said he used the momentum thanks to a bump from Kenseth. Kenseth fell back and Truex slid into the lead spot. As the duo charged out of the final corner Hamlin and Truex were side by side. They touched and Hamlin was able to get the few inches needed to win.
“I did all I thought I could do,” Truex said. “I had the lead ‘til like the start of the ‘Daytona’ over there on the wall and it could have been 20 feet from the line…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.”
The day and the week belonged to Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin won the 500 and the Sprint Unlimited and JGR driver Kyle Busch won a Can-Cam Duel race Thursday night.
Kyle Busch was scored in third, Harvick was fourth and Edwards rallied back to finish fifth. Defending Daytona 500 champion Joey Logano was sixth, Kyle Larson seventh, Reagan Smith eighth with Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch rounding out the top 10. The Sprint Cup series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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