Denny Hamlin had his Daytona 500 end rather abruptly Sunday after an eight-car “Big One” at the end of Stage 1 at Daytona International Speedway.
Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota Camry, was among the eight cars involved and was one of four racers who had his day ended because of the crash. Hamlin pointed the finger at Brad Keselowski, who made contact with Harrison Burton, when he was asked about the wreck during the FOX broadcast.
“You can see the 21 (Burton) kind of getting out of control there so your mindset there is that you got to back off, but I think the 6 (Keselowski) was just insistent on pushing him at all costs and eventually turned the 21 around,” Hamlin said on the broadcast. “It’s tough considering it’s just for the stage, but we were kind of boxed in there where I noticed something was gonna happen, but I was boxed in. I was behind a teammate, I wanted to try to help but, again, just too aggressive pushing right there when they weren’t lined up in under control.”
It marked the first time in Hamlin’s 17 Daytona 500 appearances that he didn’t finish the race. William Byron, Ross Chastain and Burton himself also did not return.
