As solid as the JGR contingent has been since expanding to a two-car operation with Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart in 1999 then winning the company’s first title one year later, a decade had past since Gibbs won its last championship with Stewart in 2005.
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“It’s the pinnacle of my career, for sure”, said Hamlin.
Hamlin just made a last-lap run on teammate Matt Kenseth, who got knocked back given the aerodynamic quirkiness of restrictor-plate racing. The win was also the first in Cup for Hamlin’s crew chief, Mike Wheeler, who took over the team in the off-season.
Hamlin’s win was the first for Joe Gibbs Racing since Dale Jarrett won in 1993.
He won it on the birthday of Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs, who discovered Hamlin and signed him 12 years ago.
The anticipation surrounding polesitter Chase Elliott’s DAYTONA 500 outlook dissipated early.
“We cleared the 20 and drag-raced with the 78”. Truex appeared to have the edge, but Hamlin managed to pull ahead and complete the thrilling photo finish.
The finish wound up being just like 1959, with Denny Hamlin surging past Martin Truex Jr.to win by a margin of.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I don’t know where that came from, I don’t know what happened, I can’t even figure out what I did, but it all just came together.” – said Denny Hamlin, who shed tears as he held his longtime girlfriend and their baby daughter.
“I missed it by a little bit on the date”, Hamlin said Sunday night.
“It gave him that couple inches to beat me to the line. We finished awful, but that was the move I thought I had to make to try to preserve the win”. The 500 just didn’t feel the same without him on the track. Truex Jr. said he was optimistic as he raced to the finish line. “I felt like I had the momentum, and I did till those last couple feet”. In the past, I have talked about how the Daytona 500 has lost it’s importance, but the build up worked well this season. “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”.
“Obviously back in 2007, when we started Cup racing, the fans were apprehensive”. I go until 5 or 6 today and start at 5 in the morning tomorrow.
The victory is significant on multiple levels for the 35-year-old Hamlin.
That left Hamlin and Truex Jr., considered an ally as a fellow Toyota driver, going at it down the stretch.
Denny Hamlin celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016. And it might have carried even more significance for Toyota, which won a Daytona 500 for the first time.
His childlike cursive stated he wanted to win the race in 1998.
“When we came into the sport, we struggled”, Wilson said. We were not ready. “We had a plan before the race and really controlled the entire race”.
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“I am truly impressed, proud, moved by what our drivers did, our teams did together”.
