Denny Hamlin won his second Daytona 500 on Sunday under NASCAR Overtime. Hamlin was on the front row during the many restarts during the final stage. Kyle Busch, who won second place in the race, won stage 1, while Ryan Blaney won stage 2.
This was the first race since motorsport team owner JD Gibbs passed away. When asked about the win, Hamlin said that “this one’s for JD. We’re desperately gonna miss him for the rest of our lives but his legacy lives on.”
The front row for the race was William Byron and Alex Bowman. Denny Hamlin started 10th, climbing his way up the grid throughout the race. The race was mostly clean until the final stage which had numerous incidents involving more than 10 cars. The race was red flagged twice.
Jimmie Johnson was put a lap down after an incident where car 51 and 52 collided, making them spin and hit cars who were heading to the pits. Those cars included the aforementioned Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse and Tyler Reddick.
On lap 191 there was a crash involving Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Daniel Hemric, Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, Paul Menard, Tyler Reddick, Matt Tifft, Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and Matt DiBenedetto.
The caution with two laps to go happened after Clint Bowyer tried moving up a row but got back in line too early, making the back of his car clip Michael McDowell. They spun and collected many more with them, including William Byron, the pole sitter of the race. Out of the whole grid, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were the only ones who finished the race without being involved in an incident.
NASCAR heads to Atlanta next week for the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500. The race will take place on Sunday at 2PM Eastern Time.