Hamlin wins 3rd Daytona 500; Newman hospitalized
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Denny Hamlin won his second straight
Daytona 500 and third overall, beating Ryan Blaney in an overtime photo
finish marred by a terrifying crash that sent Ryan Newman to the
hospital on Monday.
Newman had surged into the lead on the final
lap when Blaney’s bumper caught the back of his Ford and sent Newman
hard right into the wall. His car flipped, rolled, was hit on the
driver’s side by another car, and finally skidded across the finish line
engulfed in flames.
It took several minutes for his car to be
rolled back onto its wheels. The 2008 Daytona 500 winner was placed in a
waiting ambulance and taken directly to a hospital, and the damage to
his Mustang was extensive. It appeared the entire roll cage designed to
protect his head had caved.
Drivers were stricken with concern, including a rattled Corey LaJoie, the driver who hit Newman’s car as it was flipping.
“Dang I hope Newman is ok,” he posted on Twitter. “That is worst case scenerio and I had nowhere to go but (into) smoke.”
Hamlin
is the first driver since Sterling Marlin in 1995 to win consecutive
Daytona 500s, but his celebration in victory lane was subdued.
“I
think we take for granted sometimes how safe the cars are and number
one, we are praying for Ryan,” said Hamlin, who was unaware of Newman’s
situation when he initially began his celebration.
It wasn’t
until Fox Sports told him they would not interview him on the
frontstretch after his burnouts that Hamlin learned Newman’s incident
was bad.
“It’s a weird balance of excitement and happiness for
yourself, but someone’s health and their family is bigger than any win
in any sport,” he said. “We are just hoping for the best.”
Team owner Joe Gibbs apologized after the race for the winning team celebration.
“We
didn’t know until victory lane,” Gibbs said. “I know that for a lot of
us, participating in sports and being in things where there are some
risks, in a way, that’s what they get excited about. Racing, we know
what can happen, we just dream it doesn’t happen. We are all just
praying now for the outcome on this.”
Runner-up Blaney said the
way the final lap shook out, with Newman surging ahead of Hamlin, that
Blaney got a push from Hamlin that locked him in behind Newman in a move
of brand alliance for Ford.
“We pushed Newman there to the lead
and then we got a push from the 11 … I was committed to just pushing
him to the win and having a Ford win it and got the bumpers hooked up
wrong,” he said. “It looked bad.”
NASCAR gave no immediate announcement on Newman’s status and officials moved bystanders away from the crash scene.
Hamlin
had eight Ford drivers lined up behind him as the leader on the second
overtime shootout without a single fellow Toyota driver in the vicinity
to help him. It allowed Newman to get past him for the lead, but the
bumping in the pack led to Newman’s hard turn right into the wall,
followed by multiple rolls and a long skid across the finish line.
Hamlin’s
win last year was a 1-2-3 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing and kicked off a
yearlong company celebration in which Gibbs drivers won a record 19
races and the Cup championship. Now his third Daytona 500 win puts him
alongside six Hall of Fame drivers as winners of three or more Daytona
500s. He tied Dale Jarrett — who gave JGR its first Daytona 500 win in
1993 — Jeff Gordon and Bobby Allison. Hamlin trails Cale Yarborough’s
four wins and the record seven by Richard Petty.
This victory
came after just the second rain postponement in 62 years, a visit from
President Donald Trump, a pair of red flag stoppages and two overtimes.
The 0.014 margin of victory was the second closest in race history, and
Hamlin’s win over Martin Truex Jr. in 2016 was the closest finish in
race history.
That margin of victory was 0.01 seconds. The win in
“The Great American Race” is the third for Toyota, all won by Hamlin.
Gibbs has four Daytona 500 victories as an owner.
“I just feel
like I’m a student to the game. I never stop learning and trying to
figure out where I need to put myself at the right time,” Hamlin said.
“It doesn’t always work. We’ve defied odds here in the last eight years
or so in the Daytona 500, but just trust my instincts, and so far
they’ve been good for me.”