Denny Hamlin broadsides John Hunter Nemechek, says NASCAR is 'lucky' William Byron won Daytona 500

It was William Byron who found himself in the right place at the right time during Sunday’s Daytona 500, making his way through the multi-car pileup on the final lap of overtime to take the checkered flag. Denny Hamlin, who was a part of the wreck down the back straightaway, said Monday that NASCAR is “lucky” it was Byron who escaped the carnage to win, and not a driver such as John Hunter Nemechek.

Hamlin explained why on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast that a Nemechek win would have caused people to view the Daytona 500 differently. Nemechek finished fifth.

“I think we were really fortunate for William Byron to win that race, truthfully,” Hamlin said. “How do we feel if John Hunter Nemechek was in William Byron’s spot? … I think we got lucky on that front as far as promotion of the sport. William Byron legitimizes it because he won last year and it’s like well, it’s clearly not a game of chance, he’s won two in a row.

“So, you’re going to have that argument, but I just think that had it been someone else, you probably have more of a woah, can we do something to fix this? And that’s not a knock on John Hunter, I just believe people would view it differently. And I think that people already don’t love what they’re seeing.”

Byron, P7 at the time of the wreck, tallied his second consecutive Daytona 500 victory. Hamlin felt Cole Custer made an overaggressive move at the wrong time, taking out the rest of the field in the process. Hamlin was credited with a P24 result.

Byron was lucky and sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. But Hamlin didn’t like luck deciding the race winner in that situation.

Denny Hamlin opines on Daytona 500 finish, frustration with superspeedway racing

“Entertainment has taken over and what does William Byron say when they ask him, ‘How did you do this?’ ‘I didn’t get wrecked.’ That’s not what you wanna hear,” Hamlin said. “You wanna hear my team brought an amazing car, we had great strategy and at the end, I made the move to win the race. Coming off Turn 4 I made the move, and I can’t believe it worked out. It’s just not fair to William, it’s not fair to the 24 team. It’s all gonna count the same to them and the record books. The record books are gonna show he went back-to-back, won the race and five, 10 years from now nobody will remember.

“… Why has it become expected that we’re all just going to take each other out? Because you won’t hear any media holding anyone accountable for making ridiculous moves. When they [drivers] say, ‘I was just going for it,’ yeah, but you made a wrong move. You went for it and took out the field. We don’t hold anyone accountable. We just chalk it up to that’s just what we expect because it happens year after year after year.

“The thing is it’s getting out of control. We keep trending in this direction, like we keep heading more and more into our winner is lucky, our champion is lucky. That is not good for being legitimate in the sports landscape.”