DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Martin Truex Jr. hugged his crew chief Cole Pearn and sighed, "I'm sorry, man."
"Four inches," Pearn replied, shaking his head, but grinning nonetheless.
Those four inches -- also expressed as 0.010 seconds -- represents the closest finish in the 58-year history of the Daytona 500. That's also how close Truex and Furniture Row Racing came to winning their first race with Toyota in an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.