Denny Hamlin was confident he was going to win the Daytona 500. In fact, he was so confident, he made the prediction over 30 years ago. The three-time Daytona 500 winner was recently on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan and talked about how he made the prediction to win the Daytona 500 at 7 years old.
“I was 7 years old and I wrote that my dream is to win the Daytona 500. I would like for the dream to come true on Feb. 17, 1998. I’m a bit off on the year, but I have Feb. 17.”
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This year’s Daytona 500 was scheduled for Feb. 16. However, it was postponed to the next day due to rain. What’s also interesting is Hamlin won the Daytona 500 last year and it was on Feb. 17.
“Thank goodness for the rain delay because I never would have won on Sunday,” Hamlin added.
As big of a win as it was for Hamlin, Ryan Newman has been the talk of the race as he suffered injuries in a major crash during the final lap. In the same interview, Hamlin talked about what he saw from Newman.
“I didn’t know really anything until we got to victory lane,” Newman began as they were watching the clip. “I’m third right here, so I’m pushing the yellow car, I see them starting to get together and I get the last lunge at the start/finish line.”
“I saw him come across me obviously but wrecks are so common at the end of these races anyway that you don’t think anything about it,” he continued. “It’s been so long since any serious injury. We just went about our business and then got informed at victory lane that it was something serious.”
The good news is Newman has been released from the hospital and he’s expected to make a full recovery. As for Hamlin, he continues to cement his legacy as he has won the Daytona 500 three of the last five years and he’s the fourth driver in NASCAR history to win the race in back-to-back seasons. In 507 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, Hamlin has recorded 38 victories and has finished in the top 10 260 times. The one thing that he’s missing is a Cup Series win. He finished second in 2010 and third in 2006.
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