By Nate Ryan

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. f Joe Gibbs Racing snaps a 21-year winless drought in the Daytona 500, the team probably will celebrate fast cars with fast food, just like the first time.

Hours after winning the Great American Race with Dale Jarrett in 1993, team owner Joe Gibbs and an entourage exited the track with a right turn on International Speedway Boulevard and stopped a block later at a Steak and Shake.

“There were about 15 people in there (who were) hammered, and we showed up with the trophy, out in the parking lot taking pictures with our family,” Gibbs said, recounting the memory of his first win in NASCAR’s premier series after Denny Hamlin’s Budweiser Duel victory Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

“That sounds like my kind of night,” Hamlin said with a wide grin. “Seriously, let’s go do this.”

Gibbs, though, was adamant about waiting until the moment again felt right. “I want to do this Sunday night,” Gibbs said. A burger and fries might seem a rather understated way to mark capturing the crown jewel of the NASCAR schedule, but the two-decade plight of JGR — and particularly Hamlin — at stock-car racing’s most fabled track underscores why trying to plan an opulent championship party is such an arbitrary and mostly empty exercise.

With impressive victories in the Sprint Unlimited and the Duel qualifier in the past eight days at the 2.5-mile oval, Hamlin could be considered the prohibitive favorite todayto become the first driver to complete a Sprint Cup sweep of Speedweeks. Teammates Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth (who won the other qualifying race) have shown flashes of the same blinding brilliance in their Toyotas, making JGR the team to watch.

But the same case could have been made during last year’s Daytona 500 when JGR cars were running 1-2-3 with 60 laps remaining. In the next 10 laps, Busch and Kenseth were eliminated by engine failures. With the subsequent lack of any drafting partners, Hamlin was a team-best 14th — a finish that belied JGR cars leading 119 of 200 laps.

“I’m always concerned in pro sports that anything can happen,” said Gibbs, who dealt with NFL heartbreak during a coaching career highlighted by two Super Bowl victories with the Washington Redskins. “I don’t think I ever go into something where I feel, ‘Hey, we got this thing.’ So many things have got to go your way.”

And they often don’t in the finicky 200-mph environs of Daytona, even for some stars who have proved more adept at mastering it.

The top two drivers at Daytona in driver rating (an aggregate of several categories such as average position and laps led) are Busch and Tony Stewart.

Neither has won the Daytona 500, and both have made the bulk of their starts with JGR. The team was closest most recently with Stewart, who lost the lead to Ryan Newman on the last lap of the 2008 race. It’s one of several agonizing nearmisses for Stewart, who is 0 for 15 in the Daytona 500 despite 19 victories at the track (ranking second only to the 34 wins by Dale Earnhardt, who needed 20 tries to win the marquee event).

The statistics aren’t as sterling for Hamlin, who won his Cup debut at Daytona (the ’06 Budweiser Shootout) but hasn’t scored a victory here since with only two top 10s in 16 starts.

But over the past week, he has seemed much more comfortable in his No. 11 Camry, avoiding the mistakes that led to several wrecks over the past eight years.

“It’s got to be law of averages,” he said. “I felt like I’ve been pretty good at it. I’ve just had crummy luck, put myself in bad positions, gotten in a lot of wrecks.”

There’s more potential for trouble this year with new rules — featuring a slightly taller spoiler that has increased closing rates and improved side-drafting — that have helped trigger several pileups but also enhanced the ability to pass.

That’s been a welcome change for some drivers who struggled with past configurations, such as Jimmie Johnson.

“This kind of goes back into the sweet spot of drafting that I’m good at,” said Johnson, who swept Daytona’s two annual races last season. “I think the goal was to create more passes for the lead, and I’m feeling good about that.”

Needing a backup after wrecking on the last lap of Thursday’s second qualifier, the six-time champion will start from the rear with eight other drivers (including Clint Bowyer, Danica Patrick and Stewart, making his return after missing 15 races with a broken right leg) who either changed engines or cars, and it should be easier to march to the front than in past years. But it also might be hard to catch Hamlin. “I’ve not got it figured out, but I feel like I understand it pretty well,” Hamlin said. “I feel every lap, I’m learning. With this package, you need repetition.”

But patience also is required, and many drivers are expecting there will be some stretches of single-file racing across 500 miles today.

“The biggest challenge we’ll have for myself is keeping the reins back,” Hamlin said. “When you perform the way we have over these last few races, it’s hard not to just want to charge out there, show that you’re still on top and still the best right on Lap 1.”

INationwide Series

Regan Smith won the season-opening Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway by edging Brad Keselowski at the finish line in overtime.

It was redemption for Smith, who was leading on the last lap a year ago when he tried to block Keselowski to preserve the win. It triggered a 12-car accident that sent Kyle Larson’s car into the fence. Nearly 30 fans were injured from debris that sailed into the grandstands.

The win was Smith’s fourth career victory in the Nationwide Series, but first at Daytona. Keselowski was .013 seconds behind. Trevor Bayne was third. Kyle Busch, winner of Friday night’s Truck Series race, was fourth, and his JGR teammate Elliott Sadler was fifth.