Kyle Busch forced to settle with being good teammate
First Daytona 500 win eludes LV son as he aids Hamlin
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kyle Busch felt like an amiable teammate, willing to do whatever it took to get Joe Gibbs Racing into Victory Lane at the Daytona 500. He’s not so sure Denny Hamlin did the same.
Busch finished second in “The Great American Race,” extending his winless streak to 14 in NASCAR’S season opener, and sounded less than thrilled with the way Hamlin handled the final laps at Daytona International Speedway.
The native Las Vegan said Hamlin declined to work together on the next-to-last restart Sunday. But on the final restart, Hamlin wanted — and welcomed — Busch’s help. Busch did some blocking that allowed Hamlin to pull away and hold off Joey Logano’s late challenge.
Hamlin went on to win the Daytona 500 for the second time in four years. Busch settled for a runner-up spot and left Daytona International Speedway second-guessing everything that unfolded down the stretch.
“This was probably the best shot to win,” said Busch, who led four times for 37 laps. “Being up front that much at the end of the race and having the track position and being in those positions on those restarts.”
Busch was leading on a restart with nine laps to go and opted to start from the bottom lane after Hamlin told Busch’s crew that they would “race it out” without working together.
Before the final restart, though, Busch said Hamlin wanted to “go back into teammate preservation mode.”
“Kind of funny how it swaps back and forth a little bit, but it is what it is,” Busch said.
Hamlin dedicated his second Daytona 500 to Joe Gibbs Racing co-founder J.D. Gibbs, who died last month following a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease. The oldest son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs was 49.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Fox Sports paid tribute to Gibbs early in the race. The team and the television network recognized Gibbs during the 11th lap. Gibbs’ favorite number was 11, the car number Hamlin has driven for JGR since 2005.
J.D. Gibbs helped his famous father start the race team, ran it while Joe Gibbs was coaching the Washington Redskins, was a tire changer on the team’s first Daytona 500 victory and the one who discovered Hamlin during a test session at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
“What happened is really unreal,” Joe Gibbs said.
Hamlin predicted a long night of celebrating.
“I’m going to hate tomorrow, but I’m going to love the rest of my life,” Hamlin said.
JGR notched the first 1-2-3 sweep in the Daytona 500 since Hendrick Motorsports accomplished the feat in 1997. So the team leaves Daytona with plenty to celebrate. Busch might need a day or two to revel in the success.
“Yeah, the 11, we try to work together as much as we can,” Busch said. “You kind of see it sometimes at other racetracks, as well. But here at restrictor plates, when you have guys like that up front, you try to work together as much as you can, and that situation kept presenting itself, and it just was what it was.
“I’d much rather see a JGR car in Victory Lane more than anybody else, so I felt like keeping our strength in numbers lined up was going to be the best we could be.” 1. (10) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 207
3. (28) Erik Jones, Toyota, 207
4. (4) Joey Logano, Ford, 207
5. (34) Michael Mcdowell, Ford, 207 6. (22) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 207
7. (26) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 207
8. (21) Ryan Preece, Chevrolet, 207 9. (17) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 207 10. (36) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 207 11. (2) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 207
12. (35) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 207
13. (5) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 207
14. (19) Ryan Newman, Ford, 207
15. (25) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 205 16. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 205
17. (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, accident, 200
18. (32) Corey Lajoie, Ford, 200
19. (38) BJ Mcleod, Chevrolet, 200
20. (6) Clint Bowyer, Ford, accident, 199 21. (1) William Byron, Chevrolet, accident, 198
22. (16) Jamie Mcmurray, Chevrolet, accident, 198
24. (27) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, accident, 196
26. (3) Kevin Harvick, Ford, accident,
194
27. (39) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, accident, 191
28. (9) Matt Dibenedetto, Toyota, accident, 190
29. (7) Paul Menard, Ford, accident, 190 30. (24) David Ragan, Ford, accident,
190
31. (14) Ryan Blaney, Ford, accident, 190 32. (8) Aric Almirola, Ford, accident, 190 33. (23) Daniel Suarez, Ford, accident, 190
34. (29) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, accident, 190
35. (11) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, accident, 190
36. (33) Matt Tifft, Ford, accident, 190 37. (15) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, accident, 190
38. (13) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, accident, 169
39. (37) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, accident, 155
40. (40) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, accident, 104
Race statistics
Average speed of winner: 137.44 mph
Time of race: 3 hours, 45 minutes, 55 seconds
Margin of victory: 0.138 seconds Caution flags: 12 for 47 laps
Lead changes: 15 among nine drivers Lap leaders: Byron 1-2; Stenhouse
Jr. 3-6; Dibenedetto 7-21;
Stenhouse Jr. 23-34;
Logano 62-72; Hemric 73; Dibenedetto 74-107; Blaney 109-121; Byron 122-163; Mcmurray 164-169; Hamlin 170-190;
Hamlin 199-207
Leaders summary (driver, times led, laps led): Dibenedetto twice for 49 laps; Byron twice for 44 laps;
Hamlin twice for 30 laps; Stenhouse Jr. twice for 16 laps; Blaney once for 13 laps; Logano once for 11 laps; Mcmurray once for 6 laps; Hemric once for 1 lap