Denny Hamlin predicts Daytona will never have exciting photo finish again

The Daytona 500 used to be synonymous with incredible photo-finishes on the final lap, but Denny Hamlin doesn’t see that happening again anytime soon.

Evidently, the willingness of drivers to wreck each other, combined with the impatient nature of the field on the final lap has created chaos at the track when the white flag comes out. Hamlin doesn’t understand it, especially when you see close finishes at other tracks, like Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“Let’s play this thing out. We’ve got a mile or more to go in this race. It’s okay. We can be three-wide. Let’s see who gets the biggest push here. That’s why we had a fantastic finish at Atlanta. Everyone’s making such a big deal about Atlanta. Three three-wide racing for the lead. Did those guys touch each other? No, they raced it out to the to the finish. We saw a fantastic finish and it’s hailed as one of the greatest races ever because we had a, you know — a three-wide close finish,” Hamlin said, harkening back to last season’s February race in Georgia, via his Actions Detrimental podcast.

“I just don’t think we’re ever gonna see that in Daytona again, because the drivers just lose their minds and they just don’t — just don’t understand that, you know, and this goes for the No. 47 and No. 22. Like, what are you doing? It’s 15 to go. I don’t understand. I was watching these guys, that wreck happened five laps before them. I saw these guys weaving back and forth, cutting off lines that are coming 10 miles an hour faster than them. It’s like, what do you think is going to happen? You’re gonna get wrecked every time like that.

“It just takes the sport out of it in my mind because, it’s on us. It’s the drivers. We’re the ones making these horrible decisions. But the car is our cart to acting this way, because they’re so planted to the ground. We’re running so slow now that we feel like we’re just gonna — the best way is just to run into each other. Hopefully you can knock that guy forward.”

Hamlin knows it could be done, as he won the Daytona 500 twice via a photo-finish, edging out Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney on separate occasions. He’s worried for the future, believing Daytona has become more about who can survive the final wreck like William Byron did over the weekend.

All told, it’s a fascinating issue to discuss, and one that may be more on the drivers than anything. Perhaps the future will bring tighter racing on the final lap, but as Denny Hamlin knows, when the Daytona 500 is on the line, anything goes.

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