Denny Hamlin won NASCAR’s biggest race for the second time in four years Sunday, leading Joe Gibbs Racing in a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium in overtime.
The race and the season have been dedicated to J.D. Gibbs, Joe Gibbs’ eldest son who died last month after battling a degenerative neurological disease. J.D. Gibbs helped his father start the race team, and ran it while Joe Gibbs was coaching the Washington Redskins. He was a tire changer on the team’s first Daytona 500 victory and the one who discovered Hamlin during a test session at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
Kyle Busch and Erik Jones finished second and third as JGR became the second team in NASCAR history to sweep the Daytona 500 podium. Hendrick Motorsports did it in 1997 with Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven.
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