Denny Hamlin wins closest Daytona 500 ever after miracle move

Denny Hamlin didn’t have an explanation. He couldn’t figure out what happened in the final moments of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

He didn’t really care, either.

All that mattered to him is that his No. 11 Toyota crossed the finish line inches before Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Toyota in what will go down as a one-for-the-ages finish at Daytona International Speedway.

“This is the best. I mean, it’s just the best,” Hamlin said after winning the closest Daytona 500 in its 58-year history.

“It’s the pinnacle of my career, for sure.”

Not even Hollywood could have scripted this for Hamlin, who had a dominant car most of the day and had led a race-high 94 laps going into the final one.

At that point, though, Hamlin sat fourth in a line of Toyotas before he made a daring, borderline miracle-seeking, move to try to pass a couple of teammates — and another ally — in his push to the front.

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth, seemed destined for his third career Daytona 500 victory, pacing the field down the backstretch. Hamlin had other ideas and went to the outside, getting a push from Kevin Harvick to get ahead of teammate Kyle Busch going into Turn 3.

Kenseth went outside to block any further advancement by Hamlin, who responded by darting to the middle as Kenseth’s car slid back going into Turn 4.

That left Hamlin and Truex Jr., considered an ally as a fellow Toyota driver, going at it down the stretch.

With a Daytona 500 championship on the line, they went door-to-door to the start/finish line. Or, as Hamlin described it, “drag-raced.”

Truex Jr. took the lead momentarily and appeared to take the checkered flag. But, as video replays confirmed, Hamlin had got enough side-draft along the way to narrowly pull ahead by the time they crossed the start/finish line.

Officially, Hamlin won by 0.010 seconds, the closest finish in the prestigious race’s 58-year history. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly a 4-inch margin, less than the length of an iPhone.

“I didn’t know we had won. I knew it was close,” Hamlin said. “I saw the pylon change and blink at the last second for the 11. I heard on the radio people were all crazy, excited. I assumed we won when that happened.”

Said Truex Jr.: “I did all I thought I could do. I felt like I had enough momentum to keep him behind me. I did all the way up until that last couple feet. He just shot out that last couple inches on me right before the line.

“Wish we could have won, obviously. Just going to have to watch that on the highlight reel for the rest of my career, I suppose, the rest of my life.”

The victory is significant on multiple levels for the 35-year-old Hamlin. First, it’s a race that he has dreamt about winning since he was a little kid and has worked diligently at becoming one of the better restrictor-plate drivers in NASCAR.

Additionally, it meant something to his team owner, Gibbs, who had endured a 23-year drought between Daytona 500 victories (1993, Dale Jarrett). And it might have carried even more significance for Toyota, which won a Daytona 500 for the first time.

Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson called it the biggest win in Toyota history, better than even an Indianapolis 500 victory in 2003.

“When we came into the sport, we struggled,” Wilson said. “We were not ready. We didn’t know. And so it’s taken time for us to collectively build an organization of winning races and competing for championships.

“I am truly impressed, proud, moved by what our drivers did, our teams did together.”

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

A memorable day for all involved, although Hamlin did regret one thing.

“I don’t think I DVR’d the daggone race at home,” he said, laughing.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Denny Hamlin wins closest Daytona 500 ever after miracle move."