Hamlin wins Daytona 500
Leads a 1-2-3 sweep of the race for Joe Gibbs Racing
Daytona Beach, Fla. — Denny Hamlin came to the Daytona 500 determined to honor his late car owner with a victory.
He delivered with a storybook tribute for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Hamlin won NASCAR's biggest race for the second time in four years Sunday, leading JGR in a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium in overtime. The race and the season have been dedicated to J.D. Gibbs, Joe Gibbs' eldest son who died last month after battling a degenerative neurological disease.
J.D. Gibbs helped his 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. 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 lies. His legacy still lives on through Joe Gibbs Racing and proud to do this for them."
Hamlin was met in victory lane by the entire Gibbs family, including J.D.'s widow and four sons.
"He meant a lot to me and it's hard for me not getting choked up because I've been choked up about 100 times about it," Hamlin said. "Just to have Melissa (Gibbs) and all the kids here, it's just crazy."
Joe Gibbs, the Hall of Fame NFL coach with three Super Bowl victories, ranked the tribute win to his son first in his career accomplishments.
"It is the most emotional and biggest win I've ever had in my life, in anything," Gibbs said. "It was the most important night in my occupational life. I know J.D. and everybody in my family was emotional."
Kyle Busch and Erik Jones finished second and third 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, now winless in 14 Daytona 500s, was initially openly disappointed in falling short.
"He's got two, I've got none, and that's just the way it goes sometimes," Busch said.
But he reiterated the JGR and Toyota 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.
"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 to cause concern over a potentially disappointing main event. Jim France, who took over as chairman of NASCAR last August, used the pre-race driver meeting 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 single-file along the top.
"I hope a few of you drivers out there 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 wreck-filled 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 for cleanup totaling nearly 40 minutes in the final stretch. During the second red-flag, one of NASCAR's track-drying trucks broke down while cleaning oil off the racing surface.
Hamlin and Busch alternated as the leaders during the handful of late restarts, and the final rush to the checkered flag was a push to hold off Ford driver and reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano. The Ford camp went 1-2-3 in both of Thursday's qualifying races and was favored to win the Daytona 500.
Logano, who started his career at JGR, settled for fourth and also took a moment to honor J.D. Gibbs.
"I'm not a Gibbs driver but for what J.D. has done for my career is the reason why I'm sitting here today," Logano said. "As bad as I want to win it, it is pretty cool to think that the first race after his passing, to see those guys one, two, three, it just says he's up there watching and maybe gave (those) guys a little extra boost there at the end."
Michael McDowell was fifth in a Ford but aggravated Logano by not working with him in the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.
The race featured eight drivers making their Daytona 500 debuts and rookie Ryan Preece, a short track racer from Connecticut, was best in class with an eighth-place finish. Ross Chastain, the eighth-generation watermelon farmer who lost his main ride for this year when the FBI raided his sponsor right before Christmas, finished 10th,
Devils 4, Sabres 1
Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists, and Cory Schneider made 34 saves to lead New Jersey to a victory over Buffalo on Sunday night. Miles Wood, Jesper Bratt and Joey Anderson also scored as the Devils won consecutive games for the second time since the start of the year. Sam Reinhart scored for the Sabres, whose wild-card playoff chances took a hit with a second loss in three days. Carter Hutton made 20 saves as Buffalo fell six points behind Pittsburgh in the race for the final wild-card spot. The win was Schneider's second in three days. His win in relief against Minnesota on Friday was his first since December 2017, the same month he had a five-game winning streak. Schneider had been struggling to regain his form after being limited by a hip problem that required offseason surgery.
Penguins 6, Rangers 5
Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang each had two goals, and Pittsburgh climbed back into playoff position with a win over New York. Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Brian Dumoulin also scored for the Penguins (31-21-7), who leapfrogged the Carolina Hurricanes for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. Mats Zuccarello had two goals, and Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad scored over the game's final 5:46 for the Rangers, who couldn't complete a second rally after erasing a 3-1 deficit to tie it late in the second period. The Rangers were not able to take the lead during a four-minute power play that spanned the second intermission. Forty-nine seconds after that penalty expired, Letang took a feed from Sidney Crosby and beat goalie Alexandar Georgiev. Malkin then scored twice in a span of 2:31 to give him four goals in two games since serving a one-game suspension for a stick-swinging incident. Crosby had three assists to give him 11 points in his past five games, helping to atone for the high-sticking double-minor that gave the Rangers a prime chance to take the lead. The Penguins had won just seven of their previous 17 games to fall in danger of missing the postseason for the first time since 2005-06.
Late Saturday Bruins 4, Kings 2
Charlie McAvoy scored with 1:13 remaining, and Bostonbeat Los Angeles for its fifth consecutive victory. Jake DeBrusk scored for the third consecutive game and Tuukka Rask made 23 saves for the Bruins, who are 7-0-3 in their past 10 games. Ilya Kovalchuk had a power-play goal for the Kings, who have lost four straight. Jack Campbell, a surprise starter with Jonathan Quick out because of an illness, made 20 saves. McAvoy scored on a backhand after Alex Iafallo tied it at 2 at 15:37 of the third period, and Patrice Bergeron added an insurance goal at 19:23. Brad Marchand gave Boston a 2-1 lead 16:15 into the second, scoring his fourth goal in five games after Bergeron won a face-off against Anze Kopitar.