MOTORSPORT: Toyota conquers 'Great American Race'

It's taken a decade, but Japanese manufacturer Toyota is finally starting to dominate America's top tier of stock car racing, NASCAR, against the long-established US giants of the motor industry and the sport, General Motors and Ford.

Today the closest finish in the 58-year history of the Daytona 500 produced not only Toyota's first victory in the 'Great American Race' but a clean sweep of the top three places.

Indeed, there were four Toyotas in the top five.

It was only last year that Toyota, which entered NASCAR'S Sprint Cup in 2007, won the All-Star Race at Charlotte and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis for the first time.

Kyle Busch, for so long a wild, loud-mouthed driver hailing from Las Vegas rather than the Deep South that is NASCAR's heartland, won the Cup for Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) last November, although Chevrolet won its 39th – and 13th straight – manufacturers' championship.

Today 35-year-old Denny Hamlin, who wrote at seven years of age in his second year of school that his ambition was to win the Daytona 500, stole the glory in his home state, Florida – by 0.010 seconds, or about 10cm, from Martin Truex Junior.

Hamlin was driving for JGR and Truex for Furniture Row Racing, which this season has switched from Chevrolet to Toyota as an affiliate of JGR.

Busch was third and Carl Edwards fifth in another, battered JGR Toyota.

The Japanese brand led almost 80 per cent of the race, and Hamlin almost half of it.

Fourth, but only 0.015 seconds from victory, was Kevin Harvick in a Chevrolet entered by Stewart-Haas Racing owned by the injured and absent triple champion driver Tony Stewart and industrial tools magnate Gene Haas, also the owner of this year's new Formula 1 team.

Sixth was last year's Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano in one of Roger Penske's Fords.

A fifth Toyota driven by Matt Kenseth led a fifth of the race but finished 14th as the two-time Daytona 500 victor bungled the last lap of the 2.5-mile (4km) super-speedway as Hamlin came from fourth with two turns to go.

NASCAR does things differently, with the first race of its 36-race Cup its biggest – and now the biggest in America as its TV audience has overtaken that of the Indianapolis 500 open-wheeler classic in May.

Hamlin's average speed over the 800km (500 miles) today was 157.549 mph – or 253.55kmh – and there were 20 lead changes among 15 drivers.

Hamlin overshot his pit on one stop, costing him several places, and attributed his ultimate success to a late push from Harvick's Chevrolet.

"I had no anticipations of winning this race on the white-flag [penultimate] lap," Hamlin said.

"I didn't know we had won. I knew it was close.

"The Daytona 500 is the pinnacle of our sport.

"This is a total Toyota team effort."

Toyota's chief in America, David Wilson, recalled the resentment of NASCAR fans when the company took on the US manufacturers in this most American form of racing.

"When we started Cup racing, the fans were apprehensive. I think it was a polarising issue, Toyota being here in the sport," Wilson said.

"I think our struggles [for many years] humanised us and showed everybody that we're going to have to work as hard as anybody. Nothing comes easy.

"The level of competition that this sport has amongst the teams and engineers is unlike anything we've ever seen.

"I cannot articulate adequately what this [Daytona 500 victory] means to Toyota.

"I'll start by saying it's our single biggest race in our company's history – in front of the Indy 500, which was a pretty special one back in 2003 (with Team Penske and Brazilian driver Gil de Ferran)."

Joe Gibbs is a three-time SuperBowl champion coach and four-time NASCAR Cup champion team owner, but this was his only victory in the 'Great American Race' apart from Dale Jarrett passing 'The Intimidator', the late Dale Earnhardt, on the last lap in 1993.

Chase Elliott, who little more than a week ago became the youngest driver to take pole position for the Daytona 500, led the opening three laps today but was out of calculations after crashing his Chevrolet on the infield on lap 20 – just 10 per cent of the way into the race.

Dale Earnhardt Junior, a two-time winner of the classic and son of 'The Intimidator', who died on the last lap of the 2001 race, led twice in his Chev but crashed mid-pack on lap 170.

Six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson led 18 laps in another Chev and ran among the front bunch midway through the race but finished 16th – his worst finish in four years.

Danica Patrick crashed her Chev on the infield inside the last 20 laps while Roger Penske's 2011 Cup champion Brad Keselowski finished 20th in his Ford.

Images: Daytona Facebook