Hamlin cruises to 2nd Daytona 500 victory in 4 years

“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.”

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.

Michael McDowell was fifth in a Ford but aggravated Logano by not working with him in the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.

“I just told him that my team doesn’t pay me to push Joey Logano to a win,” McDowell said.

Ty Dillon was sixth in the highest-finishing Chevrolet.

The race featured eight drivers making their Daytona 500 debuts and rookie Ryan Preece, a short track racer from New England, 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,

Jamie McMurray, the 2010 winner, led six laps and was in the mix until he was collected in one of the late accidents. He finished 22nd in his final race before retirement.

William Byron and Alex Bowman were the youngest front row in race history but had little to show for it after the race. Bowman finished 11th and Byron, the pole-sitter, was 21st.

Hamlin last year suffered through his first winless season in the Cup Series and made a crew chief change during the offseason. When he won the 500 in 2016 it was his debut race with crew chief Mike Wheeler, and this victory came in his first race with Chris Gabehart.

DAYTONA 500 RESULTS

1. (10) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 207 laps.

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, 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, Toyota, 205.

16. (20) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 205.

17. (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, Accident, 200.

18. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 200.

19. (38) BJ McLeod, 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, 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, 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 houts, 45 minutes, 55 seconds, 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.