Denny Hamlin addresses 'little misleading' aspect of Ryan Blaney's sensational Daytona win

At Daytona, Ryan Blaney pulled off a sensational win after making up several spots in the closing few minutes of the lap. Blaney earned his second win of the season as he went from 13th spot to taking the checkered flag in the final two laps.

However, during a recent episode of Actions Detrimental, Ryan Blaney's going from 13th to 1st was challenged. One of the co-hosts of the show asked Denny Hamlin whether it is 'a little misleading' considering how, on a superspeedway, 13th can also be 5th with the way cars are stacked up together.

"I mean you got to count cars and positions, right? Just because you're two and three wide. Listen, 13th at Martinsville with two laps to go is, yes, very, very different than being at Daytona 13th with two laps to go. Not only for distance but time delta to the leader. While you're 13th, you're only actually a half a second from the lead. So, it's not that big," Hamlin replied. [20:10]

He further commented on what he found to be 'impressive' about Ryan Blaney winning at Daytona. Hamlin highlighted the Penske driver using his skill set to push out his rivals and then letting them make a decision based on which he made his own decision.

"That's where I found I got much better at superspeedway racing, 10-15 years ago, is that not necessarily having to be the one to make the move, but pushing someone else to make them make a choice and then you have time to process whether that choice was right or not," Denny Hamlin described.

Denny Hamlin imagines a scenario with Ryan Blaney not winning at Daytona

While Ryan Blaney made up several spots in the last few laps to take the win at Daytona, Denny Hamlin wondered what would've happened had he not been able to. This is because most of the drivers racing around Blaney were those who hadn't had as impressive regular seasons.

But if one of them had won the race, he would've been in the playoffs, like Harrison Burton last season. This was something which Denny Hamlin touched on, the possibility of another driver apart from Ryan Blaney winning at Dayton, aanitss implications on the playoff format.

"Ryan Blaney out here doing God's work. I mean, everyone he was racing was like 30th in points. No, that's what we wanted though. I know. It's for our argument. I wish that one of those guys would have won. I mean, how different would the narrative have been if Cole Custer or Justin Haley had won versus Blaney, right? I mean, we're talking about how great the racing was and it was. We're critical most times on this podcast. We also got to give it to due when when the racing was good," he said. [21:30]

Hamlin remarked that at the end of the race, it was 'good racing.' But had it been an underdog winner instead of Ryan Blaney, the JGR driver claimed the fans would've gone 'absolutely berserk.'