Daytona 500 Post Race Report
Hamlin Sustains Late Damage, Finishes 21st in Daytona 500
Denny Hamlin executed his plan to win the Daytona 500 to near perfection Sunday afternoon, running in the top-five late in the race before a crash at the front of the field collected the #11 FedEx Express Toyota, relegating the team to a 21st-place finish behind winner Trevor Bayne.
Hamlin was pushing race leader Ryan Newman in the outside groove with three laps remaining, with Regan Smith getting a shove from Kurt Busch on the bottom. A pair of cars made it three-wide up the middle, when Smith got turned sideways in front of the field. Newman and Hamlin had nowhere to go and the #11 Camry sustained heavy front-end damage, ending Hamlin's bid for the victory.
"I was just laying back and being patient and waiting for the right time to make a move," said Hamlin. "We hooked up with Ryan (Newman) and went right up through there. I was worried that if we gave up the middle lane and went three-wide that something would happen. I guess the 78 (Regan Smith) got turned and we had nowhere to go. It's frustrating, for sure, because we executed our plan and were right in it with three to go and got caught up in a wreck."
Hamlin started 18th and was biding his time deep in the field early in the event around the 2.5-mile superspeedway, content with avoiding big packs of cars and potential danger. The move paid off on Lap 30, when a 14-car pileup in front of the #11 Camry took out many of the top contenders.
The plan continued throughout the race's midpoint, as Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch drafted nose-to-tail.
Under caution with 75 laps to go, Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford decided it was time to head to the front. Hamlin found another drafting partner in Newman, and the duo went straight to the lead. They swapped places on lap 164 and Hamlin led once for seven laps.
A few late cautions bunched the field, and the incident on Lap 198 -- of a scheduled 200 -- was a product of the new two-car style drafting at Daytona.
Bayne withstood a pair of 'green-white-checkered' attempts to hold off runner-up Carl Edwards for the victory. Bayne, 20, became the youngest Daytona 500 champion.
The #11 FedEx team returns to the track at Phoenix International Raceway, February 27.
