DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Denny Hamlin, who led 20 laps earlier in the race, limped to the ambulance Saturday night after a second crash in the Coke Zero 400, this one 10 laps from the finish.
Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota suddenly turned to the right after he'd tried to avoid slowing traffic in front of him on Lap 150. It was the fifth caution of the race, and led to a red flag that lasted just under nine minutes as crews worked to remove Hamlin's car and other debris from the track.
Matt Kenseth spun out himself while trying to avoid Hamlin's spin. The wreck claimed six cars in all.
Hamlin's car eventually was struck in the rear by A.J. Allmendinger and Dave Blaney and bounced in the air before spinning to a stop in the grass. Hamlin, who is recovering from a broken back suffered in a crash March 24 and has battled back injuries throughout his career, walked gingerly to the ambulance and was taken to the infield medical center, where he was cleared and released.
Hamlin left the medical center without answering reporters' questions. He also was shaken up last week after a hard crash at Kentucky Speedway, complaining of a headache and knee pain. He was cleared at the speedway, and cleared again on Monday by a doctor at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before beginning a two-day test there.
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Jeff Gordon and David Reutimann were also caught up in the wreck when Kenseth turned down the track. The contact lifted Kenseth's tires off the ground briefly.
"I saw the wreck and tried to slow down and miss it, but just not much I could do," Kenseth said.
Hamlin's crew chief, Darian Grubb, radioed him to see if he was OK.
"10-4," Hamlin replied.
Allmendinger also appeared shaken when he climbed from his car. He also was cleared and released from the infield care center.
"It's kind of like Days of Thunder," Allmendinger said after the wreck. "Everybody moved down and Denny appeared right in front of me, so I just hit him as hard as I could, unfortunately."
Jimmie Johnson was leading the race at the time of the wreck, the biggest one of the night so far.
Hamlin was involved in an earlier crash and had just returned to the track.
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Just a few laps after the big wreck, on Lap 155 of a scheduled 160, Kasey Kahne was bumped out of line on the backstretch by Marcos Ambrose and struck the inside wall hard while running second to teammate Johnson. Kahne climbed from the car unassisted but was visibly frustrated with the result.
Ambrose's car was pushed to the left by Johnson, but with Kahne already holding the position there was nowhere for Ambrose to go. Ambrose came to the pits for repairs and returned to the race.
"I got slammed and shot to the left," Kahne said. "It's kind of how these races go. You don't have a lot of control over what happens."
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