Hamlin outlasts Daytona field
Winner dedicates second title in race to late car owner
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin came to the Daytona 500 determined to honor his late car owner with a victory.
He delivered in a storybook tribute for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin won NASCAR’s biggest race for the second time in four years Sunday, leading JGR to a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium in overtime. The race and the season have been dedicated to J.D. Gibbs, team owner Joe Gibbs’ eldest son, who died last month after battling a degenerative neurological disease.
J.D. Gibbs helped his father start the team, ran it while his dad was coaching the Redskins, was a tire changer on the team’s first Daytona 500 victory and was the one who discovered Hamlin during a test session at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina. Hamlin was hired to drive the No. 11 — the number J.D. Gibbs used when he played football — and J.D. Gibbs’ name is on the Toyota.
When Hamlin stopped his car along the frontstretch to collect the checkered flag, he immediately credited J.D. Gibbs.
‘‘The whole family, they did so much for me over the course of my career, and this one is for J.D,’’ Hamlin said. ‘‘We are desperately going to miss him the rest of our lives. His legacy still lives on through Joe Gibbs Racing, and I’m proud to do this for them.’’
Kyle Busch and Erik Jones finished second and third, respectively, as JGR became the second team in NASCAR history to sweep the Daytona 500 podium. Hendrick Motorsports did it in 1997 with Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven.
Busch, who is winless in 14 Daytona 500s, initially was disappointed about falling short.
‘‘[Hamlin’s] got two, I’ve got none, and that’s just the way it goes sometimes,’’ Busch said.
But he reiterated JGR’s goal of working together to win the race and noted he didn’t have much of a shot at beating Hamlin because the field had been decimated by a flurry of late accidents.
‘‘I was trying to make sure one of us gets to victory lane, first and foremost,’’ Busch said. ‘‘There wasn’t enough cars out there running at the end. I don’t know how it would have played out.’’
The Cup Series slogged through three uninspiring exhibition races during Speedweeks, causing concern about a potentially disappointing main event.
NASCAR chairman Jim France used a meeting before the race to ask the drivers to liven up the activity. Hamlin and Chase Elliott were the rare drivers to use the bottom lane in the exhibition races, while the rest of the field ran in a single file along the top.
‘‘I hope a few of you drivers will get down on the bottom with Denny and Chase and put on a good show today,’’ France told the field.
The drivers obeyed and delivered an action-packed and wreckfilled running of ‘‘The Great American Race.’’
There was an accident on pit road, a 21-car crash, 12 cautions and five wrecks in the final 20 laps of regulation. The race was stopped twice down the stretch for cleanups totaling nearly 40 minutes.