Thrilling Daytona 500 finish a major win for Hamlin, NASCAR

 The official margin of victory is .0010 seconds, a figure that was rounded down from .0011, which was the number that the electronic implements which calculate such things produced on its first pass at estimating the space between Denny Hamlin’s victory and Martin Truex’s loss in the 58th running of the Daytona 500. That’s the finest finish since the incorporation of electronic scoring. That’s three times faster than the blink of an eye, hardly quick enough to take in Hamlin as he nudged his black Joe Gibbs machine inches ahead of Truex’s Furniture Row car on the final laps of a race that was long on dramatic twists.

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Most who saw that photo finish live will be forgiven for thinking that Truex was the victor. That includes the New Jersey boy himself, who was fairly convinced that his positioning on the low line of the track would prove his E-Z Pass to Victory Lane. “I knew it was really close,” he said. “I just said [to myself], ‘Damn, that was close.’ [I] tried to look at the big screen, as you do.  My spotter was going absolutely ballistic on the radio, screaming. I couldn’t tell what the heck was going on. [We] did our best to beat him at the line, but just came up short.”
RELATED:  Daytona 500 results
While Truex did not get the ending he had hoped, the final act he co-authored with Hamlin transformed NASCAR’s premier event into a certified blockbuster—and in its very first show following a massive renovation to their grandest stage, no less. Keep in mind: this was a result achieved without any fettling from the Cup series’ myriad new rules for the upcoming season,making it something for the sport’s many hard-line fans to truly savor. What’s more, this conclusion drew a massive general audience without a bankable star in a headlining role. The retired Jeff Gordon watched from the FOX booth, the retiring Tony Stewart joined the broadcast via phone and Dale Earnhardt Jr. spiraled out of the race after botching a drafting move in the middle of the pack. Surely NASCAR’s corporate wards are still pinching themselves, still.

The Great American Race made itself. How did this come to be? Hamlin still can’t quite explain it. “It just all happened so quickly,” he said. “Usually in these things, you’re leading with five laps to go. And usually whoever's leading wins the race. You have time to think about it. You’re getting emotional while you're still racing. For me, I was so caught in the moment. And when we won the race, it was like, OK, now what just happened?”
As with most automotive mysteries, it’s best to start under the hood. Those thousandths of a second might belong to Hamlin but, let’s be clear, the day belonged to Toyota Racing Development. Celebrating its 10th year in NASCAR, the manufacturer’s imprimatur was all over this contest, “the single biggest race in our company’s history,” according to TRD majordomo David Wilson.
So it was a special race then, one Hamlin, echoing the Toyota majordomo, called “the biggest race of my career as far as stature is concerned.” And yet, “Realistically, this is a team victory. It’s the best I’ve ever seen any teamwork together for the Daytona 500. My name will be on the trophy, but it should probably be cut up four or five different ways.”
Would he have preferred to win by a larger margin? “No. You want to win the tight ones—well, it would be fun to win by a lap. But [this is], like, storybook. You make a pass on the last corner of the last lap of the Daytona 500. That’s what makes it so cool.”