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Denny Hamlin got the nose of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out just in front of Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for a third-place finish in Sunday’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Round of 12 finale — by a mere 0.006 seconds.
Had he finished behind Busch, Hamlin would’ve been eliminated from the Chase — and his day would’ve been much, much worse.
“It was tough all day,” Hamlin said after the race. “Really the first true, good Chase fortune I’ve had in 11 years. … I felt this was the best-case scenario for us.”
How close was @dennyhamlin to not advancing in #TheChase?
0.006 at the stripe! https://t.co/gaKsWBxPaH
— NASCAR (@NASCAR)
October 23, 2016
Anybody else got a case of deja vu right now?
Hamlin opened the season with a very similar finish — for the win, too — when he edged out Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line of the Daytona 500 by 0.010 seconds.
RELATED: Hamlin wins thrilling Daytona 500
Talladega and Daytona: two similar finishes, two afternoons that could’ve been drastically different for Hamlin had the game of inches not fallen in his favor.