The Grassy Knoll crowd, they'll have a field day with this one. Half of NASCAR's fan base already thinks NASCAR president Mike Helton was in Dealey Plaza that day in November. What are they going to make of this?
"This" being Denny Hamlin winning the Daytona 500, but only after the usual three mega-crashes in the last 10 laps meant it took the usual hour or so to run the last 10 laps.
And Kyle Busch finishing second.
And Erik Jones finishing third.
All three drivers, see, run for Joe Gibbs Racing. It was the first time one team finished 1-2-3 in the 500 since Hendrick Motorsports did it in 1997 with Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven, and it came just a month after Gibbs' son and JGR co-chairman J.D. Gibbs died from a neurological disorder.
As he climbed out of the winning car, Hamlin, whom J.D. Gibbs discovered, pointed to a sticker bearing J.D.'s name on the window post of his car. It was the perfect closing flourish to a fairy tale day that -- OK, yes -- really did seem too good to be true.
Or, you know, too good not to be orchestrated.
As with almost all kooky conspiracy theories, this one doesn't stand up to any rational scrutiny. To start with, Daytona of all places is impossible to script. The chaos of the last 10 laps -- a Daytona staple -- made that point clearly. So even if Mike Helton or anyone else were foolish enough to try to script the finish, thereby destroying any shard of credibility the sport still has, it couldn't have happened without an inconceivable amount of luck.
No, this was pure serendipity at work. It was as random as Daytona always is.
Not to say a story no scribe who was there to chronicle the day could possibly screw up.
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