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Hamlin Honored At Daytona Champion’s breakfast

Daytona 500 winning car inducted into Daytona International Speedway's Ticket and Tours Building where it will be on display for next year. Shown with winner Denny Hamlin, crew chief Mike Wheeler and team owner Joe Gibbs and full track-side team. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Daytona 500 winning car inducted into Daytona International Speedway’s Ticket and Tours Building where it will be on display for next year. Shown with winner Denny Hamlin, crew chief Mike Wheeler and team owner Joe Gibbs and full track-side team. [Joe Jennings Photo]

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The morning after every Daytona 500, the winner is honored at a Champion’s Breakfast at the Daytona International Speedway. At the same time, the winning car is rolled into Daytona’s Ticket and Tours Building where it will be on display for the next year.

Winner Denny Hamlin, team owner Joe Gibbs and champion crew chief Mike Wheeler received commemorative leather jackets, Hamlin was gifted with a steel and gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watch, Gibbs with a replica of the Harley J. Earl winner’s trophy and Wheeler received the Cannonball Baker crew chief’s trophy. In addition, Hamlin and DIS president Joie Chitwood III unveiled the logo for the 2017 Daytona 500.

Along with the winning trio, the FedEx Express Toyota winning team members were on hand to share in the spoils of victory.

During a Q&A session, Hamlin said, “Yesterday was an awesome day. We devised a plan a few days ago to get a win for Joe Gibbs and until that last corner, I didn’t know whether it would be me. From my standpoint, you don’t want to be the one not to win the big one. To win it in this fashion was great and winning the first one for Toyota was great too.”

Concerning his last lap winning move, Hamlin said he watched a replay twice, so he could see how he did it as moving at 200 miles per hour things happen quickly. “I watched it two times to figure out how we got the run that we did, to see how things worked. My bed was made when I went to the top line to block No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). I thought I was okay and with four Toyotas in front of me, we really had a good chance of one of us winning it. No. 4 hit me 2 or 3 times going down the backstretch, which helped me. I was surprised not to get blocked and so I thought this is a great opportunity to win or to take out all three of our cars. Selfishly when you have the finish line 300 yards away, it is not hard to make that move. And I would do it every time.”

“The teamwork on the race track was great. How many times do you layout a plan and to have the thing actually play out?” commented Gibbs. “What kept me uptight is I knew there was going to be a change at that last corner and to have it playout the way it did was exciting.”

Gibbs and his family celebrated the victory at a local Steak ‘n Shake, the same way and location they did so 23 years ago.

After a lengthy photo shoot with the winning car, Hamlin flew off to New York City for television appearances with Fox and Friends, Live with Kelly and Michael (ABC) and others, a visit to ESPN studios in Connecticut and then to Atlanta for more television and radio interviews.

And the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is just getting started, opening with its Super Bowl – the Daytona 500.

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