Hamlin wins again for Gibbs in Nationwide

Tag : chequered plates


Denny Hamlin claimed Joe Gibbs Racing's twelfth Nationwide seriesvictory of the season in the Winn-Dixie 250 at DaytonaInternational Speedway.
Once again the Toyota-powered cars emerged as the class of thefield in restrictor-plate racing, with the No. 20 car that Hamlindrove to victory taking three out of three wins at NASCAR's biggesttracks.
Hamlin first emerged in the lead on lap 61 and was in contentionfrom then on. He swapped positions at the front with Dale EarnhardtJr, teammate Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, but ten laps from the endhe grabbed the lead for one last time.
With about eight laps to go it looked like he was going to breakaway from the field only chased by Busch, but two laps from the enda caution came out when Colin Braun lost control of his car at theexit of turn four, crashing into the outside barrier.
The incident forced a green-white-chequered finish but Busch didn'tattempt anything and stayed in line to protect as safe one-two forJoe Gibbs Racing, giving the Virginia native his third victory ofthe season and the eighth of his career.
"Kyle kind of got back there on that last restart and it worried mea little bit he was going to get a run," said Hamlin, who hadstarted the race from 17th place. "I knew he was going to have ahuge head of steam but he was a great teammate and it's a greatexample of team work. We had a one-two-three last week and aone-two this week."
Busch came home in second place ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr andClint Bowyer, while Brad Keselowski rounded up the top-five as thebest among the Nationwide series regulars, leading 28 laps duringthe night, only one less than the race-winner.
"The 20 car was definitely the fastest car out there," Busch said."We had the best handling car and were able to keep it wide-openpretty much the whole race.
"Obviously the No. 20 team has been strong all year. It was fun torace there with (Dale Earnhardt) Junior and Denny and the No. 2 carwas coming back there towards the end for what it was worth.
"We had a green-white-chequered and just felt like it was betterstaying in line rather than try to go for something and fall backmore spots. I just had to play the teammate game there and helpDenny."
The last restart saw some action at the front of the pack when CarlEdwards ran in the grass trying to take evasive action when one ofthe front-runners was slow on the green flag.
He was upset at the end of the race because he felt he wasn't onthe right position for that last restart, due to a problem with thetiming and scoring.
"When Colin Braun wrecked on the back straightaway, I was 100 feetin front of Clint Bowyer and then on the restart, because I drovethrough the grass, I didn't go through their timing loop there, sothey scored me behind Clint, which was very frustrating," he said.
"I felt like we had a chance to win. And then on the restart, itjust didn't work out for us. Very, very frustrating."
Pole-sitter Bryan Clauson looked set for a top-ten finish but lostmany positions in the last restart. He crossed the finish line in19th place but was still the highest-finishing rookie in a racethat finished with the caution flags waving when Mike Wallacecrashed out of the final turn.
Bowyer continues to lead the points ahead of Keselowski.