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Sport
Tom Bowles at Daytona International Speedway

Denny Hamlin wins Daytona 500 in closest finish ever – as it happened

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin celebrates after the closest of finishes at Daytona. Photograph: Peter Casey/USA Today Sports

Awaiting the winner’s press conference, Kevin Harvick had this to say after his fourth-place finish on the racing this season. “Well I think the racing is definitely going to be different. I think Atlanta was going to be slip and slide anyway, but I think as you look at the new package, it is probably going to be a lot worse. I think the drivers are looking forward to it and will put on a great show for the fans.”

Truex on working with the Gibbs cars: “We felt like if we could ever get lined up, we could control the race.” They did, as Toyotas led a total of 158 of 200 laps.

Today was the first victory for Toyota in the Daytona 500 since entering Nascar’s Cup Series in 2007. They finished 1-2-3 today with Denny Hamlin winning, then Truex, then Kyle Busch.

Martin Truex, Jr on second place: “I feel like the move Matt made is what gave me a chance to win the race. I don’t think I was in position to make a move because Kyle was behind me... I just couldn’t shoot out before turn 4 without guys getting around us.”

Here’s the finish:

Kyle Busch is in the media center now. On third-place finish: “I missed my opportunity (on the last lap). That’s racing. That’s how it goes.”

Some underdog stories that panned out today: Regan Smith comes back from a wreck to finish eighth for single-car team Tommy Baldwin Racing. Michael McDowell 15th in a second car for Leavine Family Racing. Solid runs for both. It’s also notable today that the race was fairly clean. Just six caution flags, none for major wrecks. The drivers raced hard and for the most part they brought all the cars back in one piece.

Martin Truex Jr lost the 500 by a matter of inches. For Hamlin, it ends an 0-for-10 drought in the Great American Race.

“Congrats to Denny. He just got me by a couple of feet,” Truex says. “I should have maybe rubbed him up the track a little bit harder.”

Matt Kenseth on his loss: “The air got me loose off of 4.”

Denny Hamlin wins Daytona 500 in photo finish!

Wow! Photo finish where the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin wins the Daytona 500. This may be the closest 500 in history.

Updated

Lap 197: Harvick and Logano trying to work together now. Their speed may be the only shot to break up this Toyota parade.

Lap 194: Logano trying. Like the little engine that could. But can’t get further than inside fourth-place Denny Hamlin. Kenseth looks in prime position to win his third 500 if all the Toyotas stay in line.

Updated

Lap 190: Toyota is threatening to hold all spots inside the top five. All four Joe Gibbs Racing cars in there plus Martin Truex Jr. Impressive. Can Joey Logano lead a charge from everyone else on the top line?

Lap 189: Green flag back out. Things are gonna get dicey here.

Lap 187: Top three are comprised of Toyota. Toyota. Toyota. 20 - Matt Kenseth. 78 - Martin Truex Jr. 18 - Kyle Busch. The Ford and defending Daytona 500 champ Joey Logano sits in fourth.

Lap 184: Danica Patrick wrecks. Major front end damage. Horrible day for her. But hey, at least her Nature’s Bakery bars were tasty!

Updated

Lap 183: Johnson is charging up, back to 21st after that pit road penalty. But he’s without a fast teammate (Earnhardt) and running out of time.

Lap 179: Keep an eye on Jamie McMurray leading that way outside line. 2010 Daytona 500 winner and restrictor plate race expert. He always tends to sneak away with the occasional victory at a race where he’s simply forgotten about.

Lap 175: Top five rundown

Here’s the top five as the field goes green.

  • 20 - Matt Kenseth
  • 78 - Martin Truex Jr
  • 18 - Kyle Busch
  • 14 - Brian Vickers
  • 22 - Joey Logano

Amelia is gone. And this Dale Jr fan is unamused.

A fan reacts to Dale Earnhardt Jr’s crash

Lap 172: What does it say about the state of Hendrick Motorsports today that their best bet to win the Daytona 500 is ... Kasey Kahne?

Lap 171: Wow. One of the pre-race favorites, Dale Earnhardt Jr just loses it coming off turn 4. Straight up loses it and hits the inside wall hard. Radiator is broken and he’s headed behind the wall. “Sorry guys,” he says.

“We’re pretty much done,” says the crew on the radio. Too much damage to fix in 30 laps.

Lap 166: These stops have separated the field. Now just 14 cars left in the lead draft. 20 - Matt Kenseth. 78 - Martin Truex Jr, 18 - Kyle Busch. 14 - Brian Vickers. 3 - Austin Dillon. 22 - Joey Logano. 11 - Denny Hamlin. 19 - Carl Edwards. 42 - Kyle Larson. 88 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. 6 - Trevor Bayne. 4 - Kevin Harvick. 1 - Jamie McMurray. 2 - Brad Keselowski.

Updated

Lap 159: First green-flag pit stops of the race. Huge penalties for Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick. Their pit crews jumped over the wall too soon.

That means both Johnson and Patrick are serving “pass through” penalties, taking a drive down pit road at reduced speed. That’ll cost them the lead draft and potentially a shot at the race if there are no more caution flags.

Updated

Jim Davis is asking me a question about how a tire was not made to be installed on that side of the car. There is a difference between left and right side tires and they are marked specifically on pit road. LR for Left rear, RR for right rear as an example.

Teams experiment with different air pressures on each tire because each tire takes a different type of load.

Updated

Lap 146: Top five rundown

  • 11 - Denny Hamlin
  • 78 - Martin Truex Jr
  • 18 - Kyle Busch
  • 42 - Kyle Larson
  • 22 - Joey Logano

Updated

Lap 142: With 58 laps to go, the front remains stable. Denny Hamlin still ahead with Martin Truex Jr right behind. The Toyota of Kyle Busch sits third. Someone is going to have to break up that trio in the closing laps to have a chance.

Lap 138: Robert Richardson Jr goes behind the wall. His day is done and so is the Cinderella story. All but retired from driving, the hay farmer was literally out in the field two weeks ago when he got a call from a sponsor asking if he’d do the Daytona 500 with them. He found the right team (BK Racing), posted a speed good enough to qualify and ... voila! The comeback was on. But he won’t finish the 500 here today most likely.

Lap 135: Kyle Larson has quietly made his way inside the top five. The third-year driver is hoping to have a breakout season after struggling during his sophomore year driving the No. 42. His talent level has been compared to Jeff Gordon.

Lap 130: First to 34th separated by a total of 3.066 seconds. Only six cars in the field don’t have a legitimate shot at winning this race at the moment ... incredible competition. Here’s what they’re racing for.

Lap 126: Joey Logano’s car? No longer “the worst”. He’s in the top five and looking racier than he’s been all day.

Lap 123: Denny Hamlin has led a race-high 60 laps and 210 overall in his career in the Daytona 500. Still has yet to win the race, though.

Wendy Kline asks how Chris Buescher is after his visit to the infield care center. He’s fine; treated and released. FOX TV just chose not to interview him.

Updated

Lap 121: Full field rundown

No. 11 Denny Hamlin in front followed by 78 44 18 1. 26 22 31 5 42. 48 41 20 3 88. 21 43 4 27 14. 15 59 2 10 17. 47 23 83 38 95. 7 6 32 19 46. 13 16 34 OUT 93 OUT 24.

Lap 119: Scary moment in the pack as Greg Biffle has a right rear tire go down. Could have been bad but the No. 16 is able to pull out of line and make it to pit road without incident. Yellow flag comes out though for debris.

Lap 113: Remember the young guns we were talking about? None of the four Rookie of the Year candidates are currently inside the top 25. Not the greatest runs so far for them; two of them, Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott are virtually guaranteed finishes of 36th or worse after wrecks.

Also, DiBenedetto is officially out.

Lap 110: Austin Dillon is sitting inside the top five. Easily his best run in the 500, but can he follow through? If you remember last July his car ended the race catapulting into the catchfence in one of the scariest accidents in Daytona history. He was lucky to escape unhurt.

Dillon gets lucky last year

Lap 107: Casey Mears makes an unscheduled stop for tires and loses a lap. It’s a shame as half of his top 10 finishes the past two years have come in this race, the Daytona 500.

Mears: “We just can’t make any mistakes here. We have a fast enough car.”

Lap 102 standings

11 - Hamlin. 20 - Kenseth. 5 - Kahne. 78 - Martin Truex, Jr. 21 - Blaney. 18 - Kyle Busch. 3 - Austin Dillon. 41 - Kurt Busch. 88 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 48 - Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 100: Denny Hamlin officially leads at the halfway point of this race. Toyotas are in the top 3 spots.

Halfway through the race I’d give it a B+. Solid racing throughout, handling coming into play and I think we’ve seen the best cars running up front. A little bit of single-file racing which can get boring but I expect aggression to step up in the second half.

Lap 95: There was a bad break for Edwards when this caution came out. The No. 19 car was hoping to get a “Lucky Dog,” Nascar’s version of a free pass that gives the first car one lap down their lap back.

However, it was not to be for them as the No26 of Robert Richardson, Jr. had just gotten lapped prior to the yellow flag. That put the No26 back on the lead lap and left the No19 hanging.

However, Edwards can get back on the lead lap another way – through not pitting and staying out in front of the leaders under yellow. That leaves him eligible for the “wavearound,” getting him back on the lead lap but he’ll have less fuel and worse tires than everyone else.

Matt DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher crash

Lap 93: Caution. Matt DiBenedetto and Chris Buescher get loose and make HARD contact with the wall entering turn 1. Both cars are totaled. Tough break for DiBenedetto who was a nice little underdog story when he made the race on speed during Daytona qualifying. His No93 was one of the cars not guaranteed a spot.

Lap 87: So, so hard to repeat in this Great American Race. Joey Logano has been complaining about the handling of his No. 22 Ford and he’s fallen back to 25th. Just not enough speed.

Lap 85:

How important is the lead draft? Robert Richardson, Jr., sitting 38th is the only driver to lose it. And he’s losing roughly two seconds a lap. The draft creates extra speed and there’s no way you can run as fast by yourself.

Lap 80 standings

Here are the top 10. 18- Kyle Busch. 20 - Matt Kenseth. 11 - Denny Hamlin. 78 - Martin Truex, Jr. 41 - Kurt Busch. 27 - Paul Menard. 5 - Kasey Kahne. 95 - Ty Dillon. 88 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 10 - Danica Patrick.

Note Toyotas hold the top 4 spots and there isn’t a single Ford inside the top 10. The best Blue Oval driver: Ryan Blaney in 12th.

Updated

Lap 78: Jimmie Johnson is dropping like a rock, stuck in the middle of three lanes with little drafting help. The Toyotas chose to throw him in the garbage disposal and they’re flexing their muscle up front.

Lap 76: Cool move by Fox to involve the injured Tony Stewart by talking to him on the phone from Kannapolis. He’s out of the 500 after back surgery and won’t be back into his No. 14 car until May. Not how he expected to start his final season in the sport; Stewart will wind up winless in a 500 he has tried to capture since 1999.

Lap 74: Carl Edwards faithful trying to, well, keep the faith.

Lap 72: The inside lane, in general has been the stronger one all day:

Updated

We have a question about why Chase Elliott would get back in the race. Elliott is trying to score more points; he gets an extra point for every car he passes in the final running order. At the end of the regular season, those points could help him into Nascar’s version of the playoffs, the ten-race Chase. There are 16 spots in the Chase and the first ones go to drivers who have won a race. But after that the remainder of the field is set by points

Lap 64: On the restart, Jimmie Johnson stays out front while wild racing commences behind them. It’s easily the most aggressive the drivers have been so far in the 500.

Lap 60: Carl Edwards’ radio: “If you could point the wheels in the right direction, that would be good.” Uh-oh. He won’t be winning today. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott returns to the racetrack 40 laps off the pace.

Lap 59: A two-tire strategy by Jimmie Johnson wins him the race off pit road. Perfect time in the race for crew chief Chad Knaus to see what such a stop will do to the handling of his No. 48 Chevy.

Lap 58: Carl Edwards’ car on pit road with a lot of damage. He was hit from behind by Bayne once Vickers spun out. While the No14 car should be able to continue easily Bayne and Edwards look like they’ll be limping to the finish.

Lap 57: Caution. Another one gets loose and spins – it’s Tony Stewart’s replacement, Brian Vickers. Trevor Bayne involved as well.

I’m not surprised as I’m hearing over the radio teams concerned about tires wasting away handling about 20-25 laps into a run.

Updated

Lap 50 standings

The seven cars in the breakaway are: 11 - Denny Hamlin. 18 - Kyle Busch. 78 - Martin Truex Jr. 20 - Matt Kenseth. 48 - Jimmie Johnson. 43 - Aric Almirola. 21 - Ryan Blaney.

Lap 49: We’re starting to see a seven-car breakaway up front as the cars are starting to separate into smaller packs. That’s important because the fewer cars together the less likely there is to be a wreck. We saw a 77-lap green-flag run in the XFINITY Series race yesterday and if the “breakup” continues you can expect a similar run here.

Lap 40: The racing has calmed down a bit up front with Denny Hamlin leading a slew of Toyotas single file. Hamlin has won the exhibition Sprint Unlimited, Nascar’s “season opener” at Daytona three times but never the Daytona 500. In 2014, he was second and last season he placed fourth.

What Chase Elliott is trying to avoid. Sitting last right now, 18 laps off the pace

Lap 33: With five lead changes we’re not even close to the pace of a record 74 set in 2011. That was produced by the previous plate package in which tandem drafting was a must: two drivers had to always be connected to each other. With the current rules, it’s a little harder to pass up front but the side-by-side racing often extends to three abreast throughout the pack.

Lap 28: Kevin Harvick is now sitting 39th out of 40 cars. With his near-wreck earlier guessing the 2014 Sprint Cup champ wanted to take it easy at the back of the draft for awhile.

Lap 25: Full field rundown

11 - Denny Hamlin. 41 - Kurt Busch. 18 - Kyle Busch. 88 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 31 - Ryan Newman. 48 1 78 17 20. 22 43 14 21 2. 16 93 10 13 34. 38 42 59 15 5. 6 95 7 4 23. 47 3 26 44 46. 27 19 83 32 24 (OUT).Differing pit strategies have switched up the field a bit heading to this next green flag.

Lap 24: Who’s chasing Chase? The media as his Nascar Chevy gets towed to the garage.

Chase: “I got in the middle, lost it, and spun out. I hate it for everybody, apologize to my guys, we’ll try to get back out there and make some laps.”

Updated

Lap 23: I agree with this perspective. Handling is clearly coming into play on a slick Daytona track and rookie Elliott did the right thing. The grass has been tearing up cars more than usual during Speedweeks and it’s unfortunate the No24 had too much damage to get back on track without a trip to the garage.

Lap 21: The last time a pole sitter won the Daytona 500? Dale Jarrett in 2000. That streak will remain intact today as Elliott’s car is on the hook and headed toward the garage.Caution flags for Nascar mean a great slowdown time for questions. Don’t be afraid to ask through Twitter or tbowles81@gmail.com!

Chase Elliott is off the track

Lap 20: Wow. Lots has just happened. A mere lap after the Harvick save Chase Elliott, the pole sitter simply loses it off turn 4 and spins into the infield grass. Car is all torn up and he won’t be winning the Great American Race today. The grass just tore into Elliott’s car and dug it all to pieces. Regan Smith also spun to avoid the mess

Updated

Lap 17: Kevin Harvick makes a TREMENDOUS save to keep from wrecking the field. Just lost it on his own off 4 but somehow kept it together. “You OK?” says the spotter. “I got loose, he says.”

Lap 13: One of the big strategy calls at Daytona is whether to go out front early, leading the pack or hang back in anticipation of the “big wreck” that always seems to happen at plate races. Right now, it looks like guys like Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Aric Almirola are headed to the front while guys like Austin Dillon, Paul Menard, and Ryan Newman (all of Richard Childress Racing) are intentionally hanging at the back.

Lap 9: Jimmie Johnson has gained roughly 25 spots since starting the race at the back of the field. That backup car, like we said has some horsepower. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr remains out front.

Lap 8: Eight laps into the Daytona 500, the field is separated by 3.12 seconds. That’s the entire 40-car field. At this point in Formula One? There might be a larger interval between first and second place.

Lap 5: Last year, only one twentysomething driver made the 16-man Chase field. Average age of Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney? All of whom are inside the top four in the race’s first few laps? 22 years old.

And we’re off!

Five cars will start from the rear in today’s race and three in particular are important to watch. Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, and Martin Truex, Jr. are trotting out backup cars after incidents in Thursday’s Duel Qualifying Races. But in each case, the backup appears just as fast if not faster than the car that crashed. Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus actually borderline encouraged the No48 to go all out and be aggressive Thursday because he was THAT confident in the backup they had in the trailer.

We mentioned today the “changing of the guard” feeling surrounding this Speedweeks. Owner Rick Hendrick was the first to feel it after his former driver, Jeff Gordon, now a Fox broadcaster speaks to his replacement, Chase Elliott, before the race.

And my predictions for today’s race:

The aliens are pretty excited by Gerard Butler’s appearance:

Uniformman_2000 asks, “What was the music played when they introduced the drivers?” There was nothing specific to each driver for the Daytona 500. However, at Bristol Motor Speedway each driver comes out to a song they select for the fans. Some of the highlights from last year ... Brad Keselowski “Drop It Like It’s Hot” from Snoop Dogg and Joey Logano “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys.

Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler gets ready for the start ... Photograph: Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports

“THIS. IS. DAYTONA!” Would Mr Butler prepare for the start your engines command any other way?

Every Daytona 500 is awash with celebrity guests. This year is no different as Scottish actor Gerard Butler is serving as this year’s grand marshal. He’ll give the command to start engines while WWE star John Cena will drive the honorary Daytona Pace Car. Florida Georgia Line, a country band did a prerace concert while Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey, Jr will wave the green flag.

Butler said he’s fine and relaxed with being grand marshal but his mother was a nervous wreck. “She wanted to hold my hand,” he said this morning. “While walking through the infield she was like, ‘This is so exciting!’”

What people think sets Nascar apart from all other sports in the US – the family atmosphere generated by its driving corps. Jimmie Johnson, btw leads the Twitter parade with 1.87 million followers

As driver introductions begin at Daytona, a sold out crowd of 101,000 settle into the stands as the first wave enjoying Nascar’s completed Daytona Rising project. The upgrade to this 2.5-mile facility, taking several years to complete changed everything from the style and size of seats to the level of fan interaction in the grandstands.

Daytona 500
Fans walk on the infield before the Daytona 500. Photograph: Jasen Vinlove/USA Today Sports

New virtual reality experiences like Toyota’s displayed here dot the landscape along with brand new concession stands, a place sponsored by Sunoco where fans can write out their own sign in marker, displays of the championship-winning car from 2015 (Kyle Busch) and Jeff Gordon’s old Axalta Chevrolet... there’s just so much to do. The project itself was $400 million, a deep hit to Nascar’s pockets but it will likely be the most positive move the sport has made in a long time.

Preamble: Welcome to another edition of our Guardian sports live blog from Daytona. This year, the 58th running of the Daytona 500 signifies a changing of the guard. Gone forever is a retired Jeff Gordon; this 500 will be the first without him since 1992. Tony Stewart, in the midst of his final season in the sport is hurt and won’t be back in a car until May. Into their place steps 20-year-old Chase Elliott, the youngest 500 winner in history who will try and pull off a gargantuan upset at 20 years old. He was pedestrian last year in five starts but enters the day with momentum after winning the XFINITY Series race in a thrilling finish Saturday afternoon.

Finishing behind Elliott in that event was a fellow youngster, Joey Logano, who was the only twentysomething to make Nascar’s playoff Chase last year. Logano has finished second in everything he’s run this week; the exhibition Sprint Unlimited, NASCAR’s Qualifying Duel and XFINITY. Will the driver of the No. 22, Daytona’s defending champ change his luck or will he be stuck on #2? “Second kinda sucks,” he said yesterday and there are signs the Team Penske driver is getting frustrated.

Of course, repeating at Daytona in this day and age is incredibly difficult. No one’s done it since Sterling Marlin in 1994-95. Will the youngsters take control or will returning veterans like Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson push to the front instead? The stage is set for one heck of a race.

Tom will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s what happened on Saturday:

Chase Elliott won the Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, edging Joey Logano for his first victory at Nascar’s most famous track.

It was the perfect prelude to the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Elliott will start that one on the pole — and with a lot tougher competition chasing him.

“It means a lot, man,” Elliott said. “This is Daytona. I’m just happy to be here. We still have 500 miles to go tomorrow. Lot of work to do here.”

Elliott took the lead from Logano on a final restart with 13 laps to go and then blocked his fellow Sprint Cup regular on the last lap. Logano got a strong run on the outside a few hundred feet from the finish line and then banged the side of Elliott’s No. 88 Chevrolet several times, but he couldn’t get past.

“Chase obviously did what he had to do there at the end of the race,” said JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has Elliott signed on for a handful of Xfinity races this season. “I thought that was very gutsy to be able to really put such an aggressive block on (Logano). He did what he had to do. Could have turned him into the wall. Joey might have saved both of them from doing all that.

“He did what he had to do to keep the guy behind him. It won him the race. So I’m proud of Chase. Such a cool thing to be part of his career. He’s going to do some amazing stuff in his career. It’s awesome to be a little part of it.”

Elliott became the youngest to win at Daytona in the Xfinity Series, getting to victory lane at 20 years, 2 months, 23 days.

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