Denny Hamlin outlasts chaos to win wreck-filled Daytona 500

Denny Hamlin withstood three major late-race wrecks Sunday to win the 61st Daytona 500, an emotional triumph the American dedicated to former team co-owner J.D. Gibbs, who died last month. Hamlin captured his 33rd career top-level US stock car series victory and his second at Daytona after 2016.

The biggest race of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season produced a dramatic and emotional start to the American stock car campaign for 2019 on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway oval.

Carnage struck on a restart attempt with 10 laps remaining on a crash near the front that saw 18 cars damaged but no drivers suffering major injuries as the event was red-flagged.

Racing resumed with seven laps to go and Toyota drivers Kyle Busch and Hamlin trying to hold off five Ford racers. Another wreck followed with seven cars collected behind the field’s top five as the tension built.

Busch and Hamlin took the green flag side-by-side with two laps remaining with cars lined up behind them. They made 3/4 of a lap before fourth-place Clint Bowyer’s car veered into that of William Byron and half a dozen more cars were collected in the mayhem, requiring another long cleanup delay.

Hamlin and Busch led again as another two-lap restart followed under NASCAR rules.

Hamlin surged ahead at the final restart and kept the lead to the checkered flag with teammate Busch second and Erik Jones third.