Hamlin wins bizarre exhibition at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin won a race of attrition Saturday night, beating just seven other cars to the finish of the exhibition Sprint Unlimited.

Only eight cars were running at the end of the 75-lap showcase at Daytona International Speedway on a bizarre night that saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. end girlfriend Danica Patrick’s race and the Chevrolet pace car catch fire.

“When you think you’ve seen it all, then you see that. It’s never-ending,” second-place finisher Brad Keselowski said about the pace car fire. “I thought it was race car. Someone said it was the pace car, and I couldn’t help but start laughing.”

It was Hamlin who got the last laugh, winning the opening race of Speedweeks for the second time in his career.

The victory proved that Hamlin has finally fully recovered from the fractured vertebra that cost him five races last season and caused him to struggle for months after his return. But he closed out the year with a victory — his only win of 2013 — in the season finale and made that momentum last over the offseason.

“The best car won, that’s for sure,” he said. “We’re two in a row now.”

SHR was the big loser. It looked like Patrick would wave her way through an obstacle course of wrecked cars, but she got her leftside tires on the infield grass, which got her turning sideways. And as she tried to straighten out her No. 10 Chevrolet, Stenhouse plowed into her.

“I got hit by my boyfriend. What a bummer,” Patrick said. “I was sitting there and pretty much just about stopped and then I got hit. That was it. It was a real bummer. I was having fun, and I felt like I was learning a lot. It was good to run with those guys. It would have been nice to get it to the end for the experience.”

The 18-car field was knocked out six laps into the second segment when Matt Kenseth cut across the front of Joey Logano. It triggered a nine-car accident on the front stretch.

The accident left debris and mangled sheet metal all over the front stretch and brought the race to a stop for just over 11 minutes.