The 2016 Daytona 500: A look back at a history making race
By Ted Fleming
The 58th running of the Daytona 500 last February kept fans on the edge of their seats right up to an exciting photo finish at the end.
It was as perfect a day as you would want for the opening points race of the 2016 NASCAR Cup season, the final year Sprint would have its name on the series as its title sponsor. The World Center of Racing was basking in the Florida sunshine, temperatures in the mid-70s and the anticipation of a rookie, Chase Elliott, set to lead the field to the green flag was as good as it gets.
It was a historic day for Elliott, not so much because he was starting his first full season in the Premier Series but because he was the youngest driver in the history of the Daytona 500 to sit on the pole. To show it was no fluke, he would turn the trick again this year, becoming the first to go back-to-back in their first two seasons in Cup.
Next: Chase Elliott wins Daytona 500 pole for second straight time
As much as Elliott’s accomplishment was something to be remembered, it wasn’t long before his day was effectively over when he spun out on Lap 18 and suffered heavy front end damage. He would finish 37th after managing to get back out on the track to gain some points. Under the new rules now, he would have been out of the race once his car went behind the wall for repairs.
Pole sitters, in general, are rarely remembered even in events like the Great American Race because the winner is the one who gets the trophy. For fans at Daytona International Speedway and watching on television, they witnessed something that also went into the record books — the closest finish in the annals of stock car racing.
Denny Hamlin had already locked in leading the most laps, but it was his race to the checkered flag with Martin Truex Jr. that had everyone waiting to find out who would be the winner. Whoever would get the nod, it would be their first Daytona 500 title, and it would be Truex who came out on the short end of the photo finish.
Hamlin came out on top by one-hundredth of a second (0.01) giving Toyota its first ever 500 victory and the first one for Joe Gibbs Racing in 23 years. Toyota would have been a winner either way because Truex was also in one.
The 2016 Daytona 500 was also minus one of its top stars as Tony Stewart was home after surgery for burst fracture of his L1 vertebra suffered in a non-race incident while driving an all-terrain vehicle. Stewart was retiring at the end of the year, and this race would have been his last chance to win one.