THE DEFINITION OF CLOSE - Thought that only counted in horse shoes and hand grenades

First finish this close DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- DennyHamlin earned his first Daytona500 victory in the closest finish in the race's storied 58-year history, pushing his No. 11 FedEx Toyota ahead of MartinTruexJr .'s Toyota at the finish line by ten-hundreds of a second (0.010) a half-foot winning difference in NASCAR's most celebrated event.

The two cars crossed the finish line simultaneously, and it wasn't until NASCAR made the official call and television replayed the finish before most people -- in the pits and the grandstands -- were certain who had won. Wasnt the first race run at Daytona decided with a photo? Only it was after the photo was developed that the winner wasdeclared way back in 1959

Daytona's a big jump from Denny's home track - the 1/3rd-mile Southside Speedway in Richmond (Chesterfield Co.) where he raced side-by side 16 years ago in his #20 with Shayne Lockhart's K95 in this July 15, 2000 photo by Al Goulder:

Denny's age 7, 2nd grade composition as posted by his mom on Twitter:

(He was a Bill Elliott fan) "I love racing."

I read somewhere yesterday that the 1959 Daytona finish was actually closer and now NASCAR is saying this is the closest finish since the introduction of electronic timing and scoring.

Closest.....