Daytona 500 halted by series of late crashes
Sunday 24 February 2019 12:12, UK
A 21-car crash brought the 'Great American Race' to a halt for 25 minutes, as Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 for the second time in four years.
The incident occurred when Paul Menard, driving car Number 21, clipped the back of car Number 95, driven by Matt Di Benedetto with ten laps to go.
Both drivers were in the running for the top five places.
Menard accepted responsibility for the crash after the race, saying "I'll take the blame for that one".
"That was my bad," Menard, who apologised to Di Benedetto after the crash, told Fox. "I wrecked a lot of cars and I feel bad about that.
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"It was go time, and I was pushing the number 95 car and it looked like he was trying to get to the middle and I started trying to get to the outside and just barely hooked him."
It saw more than a dozen cars involved in the pile-up, though no serious injuries reported to any of the drivers involved.
There were five crashes and two red flags in the final 20 laps of regulation.
Hamlin's victory saw a 1-2-3 sweep for Joe Gibbs Racing, as Kyle Busch finished second and Erik Jones was third.
The team's co-founder, JD Gibbs, died last month following a battle with a degenerative neurological disease.
