Denny Hamlin wins the Daytona 500:

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

 #11-Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway for his 1st win of the season, 1st win in the Daytona 500 and 27th career win. Hamlin led 95 of the 200 laps. This was the car#11 Denny Hamlin's 11th race at Daytona and makes the 11th time a race car #11 has won at Daytona. Last year Ford swept the three races and Chevrolet swept the first two in 2016. This is the first Daytona 500 win for Toyota after claiming their first points championship in 2015 with Hamlin's team mate Kyle Busch at Homestead ,Fla.
It is the 2nd Daytona 500 win for Joe Gibbs Racing and first since Dale Jarrett won in 1993. It is the first career win for crew chief Mike Wheeler.
#78-Martin Truex Jr. led coming to the start-finish line, but Hamlin caught him and won by .010 seconds in a photo finish.
#18-Kyle Busch 2015 Sprint Cup Champion finished 3rd, followed by former 2007 Daytona 500 winner#4-Kevin Harvick, #19-Carl Edwards, 2015 Daytona winner #22-Joey Logano, #42-Larson, #7-Smith (kids eat free at Golden Corral on Monday), #3-Dillon and #41-Busch.
  Two time Daytona 500 winner #20-Kesneth led on lap 199 and was quite a bit ahead of the 2nd line which Hamlin was in, Kenseth moved over to race Hamlin and ended up falling back and finished 14th.
#24-Chase Elliott, the pole sitter, and yesterdays NASCAR Xfinity race winner spun on lap 20 while in the middle of the pack and did a lot of damage to the front end. Elliott came back out down 40 laps and finished 37th. #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led 15 laps, and was the race favorite, spun off turn 4 on lap 169 hitting the inside wall and ended his day, finishing 36th.
There no large wrecks, termed 'the big ones', during the race.
There were 20 lead changes among 15 drivers and 6 cautions for 31 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 157.549mph.
#21-Ryan Blaney (19th) was the highest finishing rookie.
#11-Denny Hamlin leads the point standings by 5 points over #78 Martin Truex Jr.
The Margin of Victory in today's race is the closest in Daytona 500 history at 0.010 second.
Denny Hamlin becomes the sixth driver to win both the Sprint Unlimited and the Daytona 500 in the same season joining Lee Petty (1959), Richard Petty (1973), Cale Yarborough (1977), Jeff Gordon (1999) and Dale Jarrett (2000).Source: (NASCAR Integrated Sports Marketing)(2-21-2016)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, Feb. 28, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX.