Denny Hamlin won his third Daytona 500 on Monday in an exciting photo finish and became only the fourth driver to win it in back-to-back years, but his celebration at the historic achievement was dampened by a near-tragedy when fellow NASCAR driver Ryan Newman crashed violently near the end of the race.
"I notice things are weird. The crowd's not really saying much, there's not much roaring going on. I was supposed to do an interview at the start-finish line, and there's no one there to do that," Hamlin told Cheddar about the eerie aftermath. "I went into Victory Lane and that's when they told me he had a pretty bad accident."
While there had been some criticism at the initial celebrations that took place at the stadium, the Gibbs team apparently was unaware of the severity of the accident at the time.
He went to visit the now-recovering Newman and his family at the hospital to show his support after the race.
"It's a tough, tough finish, obviously. It looks like he'll come out of this, and that's really, really encouraging," Hamlin said. "Once we get down the line, get a few days, weeks down the road, we'll be able to enjoy it on our end."
Hamlin, who drives Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 11 Toyota, reflected on how sometimes those immersed in the sport can take their safety for granted.
Despite the frightening finish, Hamlin still stands among the greats in NASCAR with the other five racers who have won three or more Daytona 500's in the sport's Hall of Fame. While the victorious driver said he knew that the feat was significant, he still had trouble processing the entirety of it in such a short time following the competition.
"I've won now two of the closest finishes in Daytona 500 history. I don't even know what all this means," he said. "It's great to have those trophies sitting in my living room, and I get to think about it well after my racing career is over. And I get to talk to my kids about what all has happened."
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The NBA star says, "Anytime I can give any word of advice, anytime I can be a role model to anybody, I try to be there because I know who I was, and I know what it took and how many people it took to help me get to the point of success."
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