3 weeks agoJoe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was awarded a disappointing finish of 38th in Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway after a wreck. Beginning the race from the 19th position, Hamlin quietly kept up with the pack during the first stage and only advanced one position up to 18th by the end of the stage. During the stage break after stage one, Hamlin made his first pit stop of the day, but the exhaust from his car was close enough to Daniel Suarez to the point that Suarez's car caught on fire, causing a DNF. During the second stage, Hamlin began making moves to start moving towards the front but was caught up in a multicar crash when Ross Chastain spun in front of the field. The No. 11 Toyota driver had nowhere to go and was collected in the wreck, leading to his fourth DNF of the year and his first one at Daytona since August 2022. Hamlin is expected to bounce back and be a threat to win in next week's race at Darlington, where he leads all active drivers with four wins, 17 top-10 finishes, and 979 laps led.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com