Denny Hamlin won his third Daytona 500 on Monday in an exciting photo finish and became only the fourth driver to win it in back-to-back years, but his celebration at the historic achievement was dampened by a near-tragedy when fellow NASCAR driver Ryan Newman crashed violently near the end of the race.
"I notice things are weird. The crowd's not really saying much, there's not much roaring going on. I was supposed to do an interview at the start-finish line, and there's no one there to do that," Hamlin told Cheddar about the eerie aftermath. "I went into Victory Lane and that's when they told me he had a pretty bad accident."
While there had been some criticism at the initial celebrations that took place at the stadium, the Gibbs team apparently was unaware of the severity of the accident at the time.
He went to visit the now-recovering Newman and his family at the hospital to show his support after the race.
"It's a tough, tough finish, obviously. It looks like he'll come out of this, and that's really, really encouraging," Hamlin said. "Once we get down the line, get a few days, weeks down the road, we'll be able to enjoy it on our end."
Hamlin, who drives Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 11 Toyota, reflected on how sometimes those immersed in the sport can take their safety for granted.
Despite the frightening finish, Hamlin still stands among the greats in NASCAR with the other five racers who have won three or more Daytona 500's in the sport's Hall of Fame. While the victorious driver said he knew that the feat was significant, he still had trouble processing the entirety of it in such a short time following the competition.
"I've won now two of the closest finishes in Daytona 500 history. I don't even know what all this means," he said. "It's great to have those trophies sitting in my living room, and I get to think about it well after my racing career is over. And I get to talk to my kids about what all has happened."
Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Beyond the Spotlight,' a biography series about the intriguing people who capture our attention, fill our social feeds, and shape pop culture.
"Anything Is Possible," a documentary about NBA superstar Kevin Garnett recounting his career from being drafted out of high school to a championship with the Boston Celtics, is set to premiere on Showtime. Executive producer Marc Levin and co-directors Daniel Levin and Eric Newman joined Cheddar to provide some background on the project and discuss Garnett's legacy. With KG considered a pioneer for modern NBA draftees straight out of high school (the fifth pick in 1995), the filmmakers also discussed the possibility of the league reversing course on its current rule that requires a player to be at least 19-years-old and a year removed from high school to play.
Professional sports is facing a reckoning right now over several stories painting an ugly picture of a toxic work environment, encompassing multiple teams in multiple leagues and dealing with different issues.
This week, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks ousted their general manager and senior director of hockey operations after an investigation confirmed former player Kyle Beach's claims that the team's former video coach Brad Aldrich sexual assaulted him back in 2010, with upper management ignoring his claims until after the team won the Stanley Cup that season. Last night, Joel Quenneville, now the coach of the Florida Panthers but Chicago's coach that season, stepped down from his post.
This comes just a few weeks after the NFL was rocked by leaked emails showing now-former Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden using racist, sexist and homophobic language. He resigned soon after the emails came to light. We can't forget, though, that those emails come from a much broader investigation of the toxic work environment in the offices of the Washington Football Team. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said this week the league wouldn't publicly release anything from its investigation of the team, but lawyers for many of the women interviewed in the case say they want a public report.
And last January, just one month after hiring him, the New York Mets had to fire then-General manager Jared Porter, who admitted to sending explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter in 2016 when he worked for the Chicago Cubs. ESPN had been in possession of the texts since 2017, but the woman in question asked the network not to run the story out of fear her career would be harmed. She only reached back out to ESPN after she left the field of journalism altogether. Porter has been banned from the sport through next season.
If you believe in the phrase "where there's smoke, there's fire," professional sports is a five-alarm blaze.
Julie DiCaro, senior writer and editor at Deadspin, joins None of the Above to discuss.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
Gaming technology studio Mythical Games recently raised $150 million in a round led by Andreesen Horowitz, bringing Mythical's valuation to above unicorn status at $1.2 billion. Mythical Games' mission is to create a new generation of gaming with play-to-earn games that allow players to play to win actual cryptocurrency. Now the company is taking it to another level with NFT technology, allowing players to play with characters they can truly own. Mythical Games CEO John Linden joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Evan Vandenberg, the founder and CEO of Dibbs, a sports card trading platform, joined Cheddar to break down how his company allows sports fans to buy and sell fractions of sports cards. The physical trading cards are typically held in a vault while fans are provided with a digital representation of that card that they can go on to sell or even buy more fractions of the item. Vanderberg also talked about the company's $13 million Series A funding round and investments from major sports figures like the NBA's Chris Paul and NFL's DeAndre Hopkins.
A Freitag pod with Carlo and Baker, talking about the upcoming federal vax-or-test deadline, the most shocking upset of this week's elections, an incredible story of selflessness and Love, Hate, Ate.
