Scott Paddock recaps a wild Daytona 500 finish

DAYTONA BEACH | Denny Hamlin nosed out Martin Truex Jr., at the finish line to win the 58th Daytona 500 on Sunday at the Daytona International Speedway. The three-time Super Bowl winning coach was focused only on the “Great American Race” and his four drivers brainstormed on the best way to get a win for Gibbs.

Though there were lead changes due to Cautions and Green Flag Pit Stops, the only Green Flag action at the front came on Lap 199 as Denny Hamlin, victor of the Sprint Unlimited, made a move on race leader and JGR teammate, Matt Kenseth. Stuck in the back of the top five Hamlin went to the outside of leader Matt Kenseth, who sensed Hamlin’s speed and attempted to block up top.

Kenseth tried to block his teammate, Hamlin wedged his auto between Kenseth and Truex, and raced Truex side-by-side to the checkered flag.

Hamlin’s JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards finished third and fifth, respectively.

“Just busted my butt there”, said Earnhardt, who finished 36th.

Logano, last year’s Daytona 500 victor, and Kasey Kahne led much of the second part of the 300-mile race around the high-banked, 21/2-mile oval, with Elliott following closely.

Piloting a vehicle he barely knew and winning the Daytona 500 yesterday would have been more improbable than Doug Williams – who only started two regular season games for Gibbs’ 1987 Redskins – winning Super Bowl MVP. NASCAR granted Busch a waiver and said if he could win a race and make it into the top 30 in the driver standings, he could make the Chase. I probably should have run him up a bit more, but I thought we were close enough.

“It gave him that couple inches to beat me to the line”. Winning the race is BIG -so big that the winners are called “Daytona 500 champions” for the rest of their lives. “I’ll put it in front of the Indy 500, which was a pretty special one back in 2003”. The intensity and talent Busch exhibited before last year’s crash remains as demonstrated with his performance in Sunday’s Daytona 500. Had he won, we would have made that five-year target. Hey Colorado, not only do we have a team, we’ve got one hell of a driver, too.

“You’d rather get beat by a few feet than 4 inches, absolutely”, Truex said.

“When we came into the sport, we struggled”.

“They don’t get any more crushing than that”, said Kenseth. “You can second-guess all day long, the only thing I could have done different was be more aggressive to the line”. Maybe it was just me, but I felt the excitement of this years race, something I haven’t felt in years. If I do win the Daytona 500 I could win 1,000,000 dollars. We were not ready. “It’s definitely a lot better being in the race, where I am supposed to be, rather than on the sidelines watching across the street”, Busch said.