Dale Money | February 18th, 2020
Denny Hamlin’s second straight Daytona 500 win, would come down to a photo finish, between both himself and Ryan Blaney. This was the second closest finish in Daytona history, the closest, in fact, being in 2016 when Hamlin would beat out Martin Truex Jr. by 0.010 seconds. Chris Buescher, David Ragan, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Brendan Gaughan, Corey Lajoie, Ryan Newman, and Kyle Larson would fill out the top 10.
After a couple of big wrecks, one that included Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Aric Amirola wiping out a number of top drivers, including Truex Jr and Kurt Busch. The race would end up coming down to a second overtime finish.
During the last lap, a big push from Blaney was enough to send Newman past leader Hamlin. But as they hit turn four Blaney would be, shuffled down to the bottom by Hamlin so the No. 11 could run on the top. Newman would be nudged just a bit to hard by Blaney, sending him into the wall.
It would all unravel very quickly, as Newman would be waiting for a fast charging Lajoie; his car would be sent onto its roof coming towards the finish line. He would be taken in a waiting ambulance, and sent to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona. Newman is expected to make a recovery, after it was reported he was in serious condition.
Lajoie would express his concerns, after the race on Twitter. “Dang, I hope Newman is okay. That is worst case scenario and I had nowhere to go but smoke”.
It would take two days for the race to get finished, as it was postponed to Monday after two long rain delays. On Sunday, President Donald Trump would serve as the grand marshal and would also lead a warmup lap in the presidential limousine.
We move onto the Pennzoil 400 at the Las Vegas Motorspeedway. Logano will look for back to back victories at the event, after edging out Penske teammate Keselowski last March for the win.
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