After 500 miles, 200 laps and a lot of hard racing, Sunday’s Daytona 500 came down to a game of inches, with Denny Hamlin just edging out Martin Truex, Jr. for the victory.
Matt Kenseth held the lead going into the final lap, but Hamlin, Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, saw an opportunity to challenge from the outside. Ducking out from his fourth place position, Hamlin moved high to get a push from behind from Kevin Harvick. Coming into turn three, Hamlin moved up to fight for the lead.
Kenseth moved up to block, but Hamlin moved low alongside of Martin Truex, Jr. on the bottom as the pack came off of turn four. Kenseth tried to move down, but made slight contact with Hamlin. Kenseth nearly spun, but held onto control of his car while losing ground.
From there, it was Hamlin and Truex, Jr. side-by-side. One moment, it was Hamlin out front, the next, Truex, Jr. At the line, it was Hamlin getting the biggest victory of his career by the closest margin in history – 0.010 of a second, or about four inches.
“This is a total team effort from Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota, Martin Truex and those guys – all of our cars up front at the end,” Hamlin said. “I said with two to go 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.”
If you follow the numbers, Hamlin should have been on the top of your list of potential winners. Driving the No. 11 FedEx Toyota, Hamlin was racing in his 11th Daytona 500. He joins racing legends Cale Yarborough and Mario Andretti to drive a car with the No. 11 into victory lane at the Daytona 500.
“This is the best. I mean, it’s just the best,” said Hamlin. “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 owner, Coach Joe Gibbs, had made it clear last week when Hamlin won the Sprint Unlimited that his goal was to park one of his team cars in victory lane, giving Toyota its first Daytona 500 win – and the team it’s first since 1993.
"I think what happened is we came down and our cars were all fast," Gibbs said. "I think we had good cars. Every time I talked to the drivers, they said, Hey, look, I think we're pretty good. Obviously there were a lot of other good cars out there.
"The way it worked out for us, Denny was right, it was teamwork. For us to hang together that long, that's one thing about our racing, restrictor plate races, if you can ever do that, it's great. The problem is you can rarely do that. We did it today."
Toyota drivers dominated much of the event, leading 156 of the race’s 200 laps between Joe Gibbs Racing drivers and Truex, Jr. Kyle Busch put his No. 18 up front on lap 18, with Hamlin putting his Toyota in the lead on lap 25. From there, Toyotas would dominate most of the day, with Hamlin, Busch and Kenseth swapping the top position.
Hamlin appeared to have the race in hand until the field came to pit road under green with 50 laps to go. During pit stops, be became separated from his teammates, miring him back in the top 10.
From there, it was the Matt Kenseth show. Kenseth led Truex, Jr. and Busch for most of the rest of the race. A caution with less than 20 to go reset the field, setting up the final run to the finish between Hamlin, Kenseth and Truex, Jr.
In the end, Truex, Jr. had to settle for second.
“He (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” Truex said. “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. Really proud of everybody.”
Kenseth went from the penthouse the outhouse pretty quickly, as that final turn bobble from the lead left him in 14th position at the end.
“I didn’t really think the outside was going to muster up enough run to get it to be honest with you,” said Kenseth. “Somehow the 11 (Hamlin) just got a massive run. Like I said, hindsight I probably should have stayed in front of Martin (Truex, Jr.) and tried to race him back to the line, but it looked like he was going so fast I could get in front of him and get a little boost and I just couldn’t.”
While restrictor plate racing on the superspeedways of NASCAR usually means multi-car crashes, on Sunday the so called “big one” never developed. Instead, Daytona’s turn four lived up to the name hung on it years ago by motorsports journalist Chris Economaki – “calamity corner.”
Among those who had trouble in that spot was perennial Daytona favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The two-time Daytona 500 winner started the day in third position, and took the lead on lap four. After losing the lead on pit road, Earnhardt, Jr. would race inside the top 15 most of the day.
But his run came to an end with 30 laps to go, when his No. 88 Chevy broke loose in turn four, sending him sliding into the inside wall and leaving his car heavily damaged. He was uninjured, but his day was done.
Earnhardt, Jr.’s accident looked similar to that of his teammate, pole sitter Chase Elliott. After leading the opening four laps, Elliott had slid back to about eighth place. His problems came on lap 19 when, again coming off turn four, his car broke loose, sending him into the Toyota of Carl Edwards. That sent Elliott’s No. 24 NAPA Chevy spinning into the infield, where the front splitter dug into the soft grass, demolishing the front end of the car.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports crew went to work and got Elliott back on the track, where he finished in 37th, some 40 laps down to the leaders.
Kyle Busch would finish the day in third, followed by Harvick in fourth and Edwards in fifth.
Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch rounded out the top ten.
Sunday’s Daytona 500 finish sets the stage for next weekend’s NASCAR weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Sprint Cup Series teams will deal with the new lower downforce aero package for the competitors.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona 500 – February 21, 2016
1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200
2. (28) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 200
3. (4) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200
4. (9) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 200
5. (10) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 200
6. (5) Joey Logano, Ford, 200
7. (14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 200
8. (27) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200
9. (21) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200
10. (8) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 200
11. (38) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 200
12. (34) Aric Almirola, Ford, 200
13. (13) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 200
14. (2) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 200
15. (39) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 200
16. (26) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 200
17. (6) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 200
18. (37) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 200
19. (7) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 200
20. (25) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200
21. (30) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 200
22. (19) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 200
23. (24) Landon Cassill, Ford, 200
24. (35) Brian Scott #, Ford, 200
25. (12) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200
26. (18) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 200
27. (22) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 200
28. (23) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 200
29. (29) David Ragan, Toyota, 200
30. (36) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 200
31. (33) Bobby Labonte, Ford, 200
32. (32) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 199
33. (31) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 199
34. (15) Greg Biffle, Ford, 198
35. (16) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, Accident, 184
36. (3) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 169
37. (1) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 160
38. (40) Robert Richardson Jr., Toyota, Engine, 135
39. (17) Chris Buescher #, Ford, Accident, 91
40. (20) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, Accident, 91
Average Speed of Race Winner: 157.549 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 10 Mins, 25 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.010 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 15 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Elliott # 1-3; D. Earnhardt Jr. 4-17; Kyle Busch 18-21; D. Earnhardt Jr. 22; R. Newman 23; D. Hamlin 24-57; M. Truex Jr. 58; B. Labonte 59; J. Johnson 60-77; Kyle Busch 78-92; D. Ragan 93; M. Waltrip 94; D. Hamlin 95-119; M. Truex Jr. 120; D. Hamlin 121-155; A. Dillon 156; B. Keselowski 157; M. Annett 158; B. Scott # 159; M. Kenseth 160-199; D. Hamlin 200;.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin 4 times for 95 laps; M. Kenseth 1 time for 40 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 19 laps; J. Johnson 1 time for 18 laps; D. Earnhardt Jr. 2 times for 15 laps; C. Elliott # 1 time for 3 laps; M. Truex Jr. 2 times for 2 laps; M. Waltrip 1 time for 1 lap; A. Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; R. Newman 1 time for 1 lap; B. Labonte 1 time for 1 lap; B. Scott # 1 time for 1 lap; M. Annett 1 time for 1 lap; B. Keselowski 1 time for 1 lap; D. Ragan 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 16 in Points: D. Hamlin – 45; M. Truex Jr. – 40; Kyle Busch – 39; K. Harvick – 37; C. Edwards – 36; J. Logano – 35; K. Larson – 34; R. Smith – 33; A. Dillon – 33; Kurt Busch – 31; R. Newman – 31; A. Almirola – 29; K. Kahne – 28; M. Kenseth – 28; M. Mcdowell – 26; J. Johnson – 26.
