NASCAR fans saw a bit of chaos during the final lap at Daytona this weekend, where two wrecks brought out a yellow flag that ended the race before the cars crossed the finish line.
A first scrum caught a large numbers of cars, scattering those that got through the wreckage for one final chase to the finish. In that second sprint, the No. 47 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got into the No. 12 of Ryan Blaney, sliding Blaney into the wall in a second wreck that left the No. 12 to finish in 33rd. Stenhouse crossed the line fifth.
On the radio, Blaney was immediately furious with Stenhouse, and did not hold back while talking to his crew chief.
“F*** No. 47. What the f***? What the f*** are we doing?” Blaney said. “Right down the backstretch and he f***ing hooks me.”
Watch: Blaney blasts Stenhouse for sparking last-lap wreck
But according to Denny Hamlin, there was a bit more nuance to the collision that was apparent at first.
Speaking on his podcast Actions Detrimental, Hamlin said that while the hit did look bad, after viewing the incident from multiple angles, he could see how the wreck came to be in a way that wasn’t just Stenhouse driving angry for the sake of it.
“You have to do more investigative work to make it not look really weird, but as you kind of look at all the angles from all the other people as well, it seems like the No. 47 and the No. 3 make contact slightly before the No. 47 got into the back of the No. 12. But I also think the No. 47 was probably trying to side draft as well,” Hamlin said.
Hamlin said that given how fast moves are made on the track, especially on the last lap of a race at Daytona, Stenhouse’s attention was likely straight ahead.
“I’m telling you in those instances, these are split-second decisions. I guarantee you Ricky is only looking forward, looking at the side of the No. 12 and saying, ‘I’m going to side draft him,’ and doesn’t know that there’s a No. 3 car barely hanging on his quarter panel, so if he goes low, he’s going to make contact.”
While Hamlin conceded that it was Stenhouse’s move that caused the incident, he was far more understanding of the move than Blaney was over the radio.
“I think it was initiated by the move of the No. 47 moving down the race track into the No. 3 that is coming up. He had just avoided a wreck, he’s got to come back on the race track. He’s there, and then the No. 12 just running his straight line, being an innocent bystander of all of it.”
If there is a silver lining to any of this, it’s that the drop in Blaney’s finish didn’t affect his position heading into the postseason. Hamlin had already secured the top spot in the Chase, and Blaney was able to hold on to second place, so while the finish was less than the No. 12 deserved, it at least didn’t hinder the team’s shot at a title run in the coming months.
Watch: Race Rewind: Preece wins his way into The Chase at Daytona
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