DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - On a night when his team saluted their fallen team leader, Denny Hamlin gave them the biggest tribute possible – a Daytona 500 victory.
Racing with the memory of J.D. Gibbs on his car, including Gibbs’ favorite No. 11 on the door, Hamlin held off teammate Kyle Busch to score an emotional overtime victory in Sunday’s 61st running of the “Great American Race.”
Gibbs, the president of co-founder of Joe Gibbs Racing, passed away last month after a battle with a neurological disease at the age of 49.
It gives Hamlin his second victory in the Daytona 500, coming after a winless year in 2018. It also gives JGR a sweep of the top three spots with Erik Jones finishing third – the first time that has occurred at Daytona since Hendrick Motorsports swept the top three in 1997.
“It’s amazing,” Hamlin said. “I told them over the radio, I’ve been in this position so many times I can’t believe how many times I’ve been on the front row on the last restart for the Daytona 500 and I dinged myself one for four in this situation, but I guess now I’m two for five. Amazing job by this whole FedEx team.”
It also comes on a night when Joe Gibbs Racing honored Gibbs on the 11th lap of the race.
“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.”
Team owner Joe Gibbs talked about the emotion of the win just weeks after the loss of his son.
“I got to tell you what happened right here – J.D.’s name is on that car. That’s his number 11 with Denny. He found Denny. I’m just saying what happened here is emotional for all of us and the family. Denny racing like he did right there is just unbelievable. I’m emotionally shot. I’m just saying, what happened here is really unreal. I’m just thrilled.
“I think J.D. has the best view of everything. It’s really an unbelievable experience. I don’t know how to put it into words. I just thank the Lord for letting us be a part of this.”
After a trio of multi-car crashes decimated the field, leaving only 14 cars on the lead lap, it came down to a battle between Hamlin and Busch.
On the final start in overtime, Busch let Hamlin get in front of him in hopes of settling the race between the two of them. With the Fords of Joey Logano and Michael McDowell behind them, Hamlin was able to get away while Busch had to battle for second.
“They gave us the option there to just drop in front of him and I thought that was the best idea to hopefully get one of the two of our cars in victory lane,” Hamlin said. “I thought it was the right decision for us to stay up top there. It was a good decision.”
On the final lap, Logano was able to get to second and made a run at the leader, but Hamlin held him off. That allowed Busch to get a run on the outside to retake second, while Hamlin was able to get away and sprint to the win.
“It’s first and foremost to try to make sure that we at least get a JGR car to Victory Lane,” Busch said. “They didn’t want to do it the previous restart, but then since he got the lead, he wanted to do it again. You know, it is what it is. Just at least we got a JGR car in Victory Lane. That’s the big picture. That’s what matters, and we move on.”
Busch finished in second, with Jones in third, Logano in fourth, and McDowell in fifth.
The race saw a trio of multi-car crashes. The first shunt occurred on lap 191 when Paul Menard got in the Matt DiBenedetto, setting off a crash that gathered up 22 cars, including Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Aric Almirola, Daniel Hemric and Martin Truex, Jr., among others. It resulted in a 24 minutes, 57 second red flag condition.
The second multi-car crash occurred on the next restart on lap 194, when Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. made contact with Kyle Larson, gathering up Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski in the process.
The third crash came on the next restart attempt with two laps to go, when Clint Bowyer made an attempt at a three-wide pass on the backstretch. Bowyer moved up the track before he was clear, making contact with McDowell and turning Bowyer up into William Byron. That set off the crash that gathered up Chase Elliott, Ryan Newman, Landon Cassill and Brendan Gaughan.
That resulted in the second red flag of the event, which lasted 14 minutes and 41 seconds.
An earlier multi-car crash on pit road left the car of seven time series champion Jimmie Johnson with heavy damage.
It occurred as several cars were coming to pit road for green flag pit stops. The car of Cody Ware made contact with B.J. McLeod, gathering up the car of Tyler Reddick. That sent Reddick’s car sideways into the back of Johnson’s Chevy. Johnson would lose two laps due to repairs, but would rebound to finish ninth.
“Yeah, I’ve never been hit like that on pit lane,” Johnson said. “That was the start of the craziness. I don’t know if that kept us out of trouble and got us a good finish or what, but certainly not something that we were anticipating. That just set off a chain reaction of events from there.”
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona 500 – February 17, 2019
1. (10) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 207.
2. (31) Kyle Busch, 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(i), 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(i), Toyota, 205.
16. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 205.
17. (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 200.
18. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 200.
19. (38) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 200.
20. (6) Clint Bowyer, Ford, Accident, 199.
21. (1) William Byron, Chevrolet, Accident, 198.
22. (16) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, Accident, 198.
23. (30) Brendan Gaughan(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 197.
24. (27) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, Accident, 196.
25. (12) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 196.
26. (3) Kevin Harvick, Ford, Accident, 194.
27. (39) Tyler Reddick(i), 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.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 137.44 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 45 Mins, 55 Secs. Margin of Victory: .138 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 12 for 47 laps.
Lead Changes: 15 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron 1-2;R. Stenhouse Jr. 3-6;M. DiBenedetto 7-21;K. Busch 22;R. Stenhouse Jr. 23-34;K. Busch 35-61;J. Logano 62-72;D. Hemric # 73;M. DiBenedetto 74-107;K. Busch 108;R. Blaney 109-121;W. Byron 122-163;J. McMurray 164-169;D. Hamlin 170-190;K. Busch 191-198;D. Hamlin 199-207.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Matt DiBenedetto 2 times for 49 laps; William Byron 2 times for 44 laps; Kyle Busch 4 times for 37 laps; Denny Hamlin 2 times for 30 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 2 times for 16 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 13 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 11 laps; Jamie McMurray 1 time for 6 laps; Daniel Hemric # 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 18,88,22,41,12,11,9,42,4,20
Stage #2 Top Ten: 12,24,10,2,17,95,4,41,48,22
