Denny Hamlin Blames NASCAR for 'Big One' Sunday at Daytona That Decides Playoff Field

Rain and NASCAR both took their share of the blame for a huge crash on Lap 139 of the 160-lap Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Cup race at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

The crash, which occurred just as rain was hitting the track, collected several cars, including those of Kevin Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Hemric, Chris Buescher, Kyle Busch, Harrison Burton, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cody Ware, Noah Gragson and Daniel Suarez.

The race immediately went into a rain delay. The race was rained out on Saturday night and began at 10 a.m. ET Sunday.

Dillon went on to win the race to become the 15th race winner and the 15th driver to lock in one of the 16 playoff spots by winning a race. Ryan Blaney, winless but tops in points among non-winners, grabbed the final spot, and Martin Truex Jr. ended up missing the playoffs by three points.

Truex was safely in the Playoffs at the time of the 'Big One."

Hamlin placed the blame squarely on NASCAR for being slow to display the caution when the rain became obvious.

“I ran into the rain in the middle of Turn 1 and just lost it,” he said. “We had rain down the frontstretch, so it was raining about 10 seconds before we got into Turn 1. I’m sure the fans felt it, then they watched us all pile in there.

“I’m just shook mostly. The hit was massive; my first one in this Next Gen car and it was legit. I made the right moves at the right time and got in the lead at the right time. But it was also a bad time because we were the first ones to get to the rain.”

When asked what NASCAR could do to prevent similar accidents, the three-time Daytona 500 winner had a simple answer: “All we can do is better officiating.