Denny Hamlin edged out Martin Truex Jr. by inches at the finish line to win his first Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Florida on Sunday afternoon.
Through rain and wrecks, on Daytona's longest day, this was a drought Dale Earnhardt Jr. was determined to end.
NASCAR's most popular driver won the Daytona 500 on Sunday night for the second time -- a decade after his first victory -- while snapping a 55-race losing streak dating to 2012.
Denny Hamlin is undefeated on the season after winning the second Daytona 500 qualifying race, that ended with a violent last-lap crash in which Clint Bowyer's car flipped upside down.
With the famed No. 3 on his car and memories of the late Dale Earnhardt fresh in his mind, Austin Dillon took the fabled number out of hibernation and straight to the top at Daytona.