Denny Hamlin wins closest Daytona 500 finish ever

Dave Wilson didn’t mince words.

“This is the best”, Hamlin said. “I can not articulate adequately what this means to Toyota”.

Kenseth was involved in a late-race crash in the second qualifier. Hopefully, (Sunday) I can get in front of it by the start/finish line.

Toyota swept the podium with Hamlin, Truex Jr. and Busch, and also had the fifth-place driver in Carl Edwards.

Practice made flawless for the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas in the season-opening Daytona 500.

“This is the greatest race in America”, Wilson said.

“Just going to have to watch that on the highlight reel for the rest of my career, I suppose, the rest of my life”, Truex said.

“I had no anticipations of winning this race on the white flag lap”. “We got a flat trying to make the outside groove push to the front and couldn’t get our lap back and then later the 10 came across our nose there”.

“How do you quantify the value?”

Denny Hamlin hit the finish line inches ahead of Martin Truex Jr.to win Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

That’s exactly what happened.

Denny Hamlin races over the line for a 0.01 seconds victory over Martin Truex Jr.

Gibbs had made it clear that he had no use for the victories his drivers collected in the exhibition races leading into Sunday’s season-opener – Hamlin and Busch each won one race in the buildup to the opener. You can second guess all day long. “We could have been on the wrecker pretty early in this race”.

Earnhardt, who drives the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, will start third in the 40-car field, thanks to flexing his muscles in Thursday’s 60-lap first qualifying race.

Kenseth said he wanted to hold the lead with one lap remaining.

Pre-race favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprised by how badly his auto handled in traffic – and even more surprised when it snapped out of control and into the infield wall on Lap 169.

Hamlin led a race-high 34 laps. I think the first time I cried in this sport was 2010 when Denny came to Homestead with a 15-point lead and we lost.

“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”. He (Hamlin) had such a big run, he was going to go right around me in my opinion anyway, and Turn 4 was treacherous on the bottom. To be honest with you, what we talked about at Homestead a year ago I felt like I got everything off my chest and hopefully he did.

“I remember when it happened to Mark Martin, poor guy, been so close here so many times”, said Truex, who was born and raised in the Mayetta section of Stafford Township.