Daytona win puts Hamlin in spotlight

Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

Denny Hamlin burst onto the scene a decade ago when he showed up at Daytona International Speedway as a rookie and won the first exhibition race of Speedweeks.

Hamlin beat Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon that night, and an article the next day from a newspaper in a city with deep racing roots opened with “Denny Who Did What?”

It was quite the arrival for a cherub-faced short track racer from Virginia who had clawed his way into a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin had dreamed of becoming a NASCAR star his entire childhood, and he cheered hero Bill Elliott twice a year from the grandstands at Richmond International Raceway.

Racing was all he wanted to do, and if it didn’t work out, he might have made a career as a welder.

His success was immediate, two wins and a spot in the Chase as a rookie. He finished third in the overall standings and seemed to be on the fast track toward a Sprint Cup title.

But the title never came, not even during an eight-win season in 2010 when he let Johnson off the ropes and coughed away the championship.

It was an embarrassing defeat for Hamlin, who had morphed along the way from the shy and socially awkward Southern kid into a rich race car driver with a swagger and an entourage of wealthy playboys. He became friends with Michael Jordan and Bubba Watson; spent an offseason in Arizona working on his golf game; bought courtside seats to the Charlotte Hornets; and became known for throwing epic parties.

It’s a glamorous lifestyle, but it came with a catch: Failure to win big races and championships opened up Hamlin to criticism that he was incapable of taking the next step in his career.

He proved otherwise Sunday by winning his first Daytona 500 with a dramatic last-lap pass of teammate Matt Kenseth, then a door-to-door battle to the finish line with Martin Truex. Hamlin won “The Great American Race” by 0.010 seconds, the closest finish in Daytona 500 history.

At last, a win in a crown jewel event.

All that swagger had finally transferred onto the race track to give Hamlin a crowning moment in his career.