Denny Hamlin won his first Gatorade Duel in the second segment at Daytona International Speedway. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
Though most pundits will point to Denny Hamlin’s victory in the second Gatorade 150 Duel at Daytona as a milestone because it was Toyota’s first triumph in a Sprint Cup race, it was actually one of three milestones reached by the automaker on Thursday.
Milestone No. 1 was the race victory, of course, something the Toyota was unable to accomplish at all in its first Cup season last year with Bill Davis Racing, Red Bull Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing.
Milestone No. 2 is that because of Dale Jarrett’s finishing position in the same race, Toyota will have nine Camrys in Sunday’s Daytona 500, the most cars its ever had in a single Cup race. There will be three cars from Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch; three more from MWR, Waltrip, Jarrett and David Reutimann; one from Red Bull, Brian Vickers; one from BDR, Dave Blaney; and J.J. Yeley from Hall of Fame Racing.
Milestone No. 3 is that because there will be nine Camrys in the race, for the first time since moving up to the Cup Series, Toyota won’t be the automaker with the fewest cars in a Cup race. That distinction belongs to Ford, which will have just seven cars in the Daytona 500 – five from Roush Fenway Racing and two more from Yates Racing.
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Given Toyota’s well-publicized troubles in 2007, Hamlin’s victory and all that surround it this year are heady stuff indeed.
“I definitely was a guy that was behind it 100 percent,” Hamlin said of his Joe Gibbs Racing team’s decision to end its longstanding affiliation with General Motors and align itself with Toyota for 2008. “It's finally starting to pay off. … To give those guys their very first win, and so early into the season, is definitely a proud moment for myself and everyone at (sponsor) FedEx.”
And Hamlin insisted the best was yet to come. “I'm actually a little more excited about the races to come: the mile and a half, two mile racetracks, California, Vegas, those racetracks,” he said. “All the hard work that we did in the off season, that's where it's going to show up, not necessarily here at Daytona. … Everything we worked on in the off season will show up the rest of the 34, 35 races throughout the season. We definitely know we have the engine thing heading in the right direction right now.”
