Denny Hamlin

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during the NASCAR XFINITY Series VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway on September 5, 2015 in Darlington, South Carolina.

Sept. 5, 2015

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

DARLINGTON, S.C. – You could call polesitter Denny Hamlin’s victory in Saturday’s VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway “dominating,” but the NASCAR XFINITY Series event wasn’t without its share of drama—courtesy of a fuel shortage and Hamlin’s own Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Daniel Suarez.

Hamlin Led 117 of 147 laps at the 1.366-mile speedway, but he didn’t make the winning pass until Lap 145, when he surged past Suarez, who was stretching fuel after foregoing a final pit stop in hopes of stealing the victory.

The win was Hamlin’s third of the season (all from the pole), his fourth at Darlington (all from the pole) and the 20th of his career.

In a 1-2-3 finish for JGR, Kyle Busch got past Suarez, who finished third, to start the final circuit and came home in the runner-up position. But Suarez secured a $100,000 bonus as the top finisher among eligible series regulars in the final XFINITY Dash 4 Cash event of the season.

Suarez also won $100,000 for a Kurt Kolstad, a race fan paired with Suarez for the Dash 4 Cash finale.

When Hamlin brought his No. 20 Toyota to pit road under caution on Lap 72, he returned to the track after a lightning fast stop during which his team left the fuel cell slightly short of a full load.

That meant Hamlin would have to pit before his primary pursuers, Busch and Kevin Harvick, and hope the race would run caution-free for the entire cycle of stops.

Hamlin got his wish. After pitting on Lap 122 and gaining time on fresh tires, a relieved Hamlin saw the race run caution-free to the end, giving him just enough time to catch Suarez, who was saving fuel on old rubber, before the laps ran out.

“I’m almost glad we didn’t (get the car full of fuel),” Hamlin said after the race. “We didn’t want a caution to fall and trap us there, but I had scraped the wall and kind of misjudged my line one time and got a little right-side damage, and the car just stopped turning.

“I don’t know if the right side would have made it or not (under the pressure of all-out racing).”

Harvick led 16 laps and finished fourth, his chances thwarted when the race ran green to the finish.

“The 9 (Chase Elliott) hit the wall or was blowing up or something, and we stayed out a few extra laps, thinking that the caution was going to come out, and got a little bit behind, “ Harvick said.

“The 20 (Hamlin) had the best car. We were better in the long run—we could run him back down and race with him, but on the short run, those guys were a little bit better than we were.”

Chris Buescher ran fifth and extended his series lead to 29 points over Ty Dillon, who finished 15th, and 35 over Elliott, who came home 24th, three laps down, after his engine soured late in the race.

Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Landon Cassill, Regan Smith and Ross Chastain completed the top 10.

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – VFW Sport Clips Help A Hero 200
Darlington Raceway
Darlington, South Carolina
Saturday, September 05, 2015

1. (1) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 147, $53679.
2. (36) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 147, $32435.
3. (2) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 147, $32251.
4. (9) Kevin Harvick(i), Chevrolet, 147, $21878.
5. (10) Chris Buescher, Ford, 147, $28698.
6. (4) Joey Logano(i), Ford, 147, $18464.
7. (3) Kyle Larson(i), Chevrolet, 147, $17790.
8. (19) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 147, $23854.
9. (8) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 147, $23555.
10. (14) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, 147, $24227.
11. (24) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 147, $23099.
12. (12) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 146, $23024.
13. (6) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 146, $22973.
14. (15) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Ford, 146, $22922.
15. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 146, $23271.
16. (11) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 146, $22745.
17. (18) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 146, $22694.
18. (26) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 146, $22643.
19. (21) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 146, $22593.
20. (16) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 145, $23017.
21. (20) Parker Kligerman, Chevrolet, 145, $22666.
22. (25) David Starr, Toyota, 145, $22410.
23. (17) Ryan Reed, Ford, 145, $22359.
24. (7) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 144, $23284.
25. (5) Paul Menard(i), Chevrolet, 144, $16156.
26. (23) John Wes Townley(i), Chevrolet, 144, $22157.
27. (22) Blake Koch, Toyota, 143, $22106.
28. (33) Eric McClure, Toyota, 142, $22031.
29. (28) Todd Bodine, Chevrolet, 141, $21995.
30. (32) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 141, $22254.
31. (31) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 138, $21899.
32. (30) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, 134, $21854.
33. (35) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, Vibration, 83, $21828.
34. (38) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Suspension, 82, $21807.
35. (34) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Brakes, 34, $15550.
36. (27) TJ Bell(i), Toyota, Clutch, 23, $14039.
37. (37) Carlos Contreras, Chevrolet, Accident, 10, $19245.
38. (29) Jeff Green, Toyota, Suspension, 6, $12039.
39. (39) Carl Long, Dodge, Suspension, 4, $11039.
40. (40) Ryan Ellis(i), Ford, Suspension, 1, $10039.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 141.355 mph.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 25 Mins, 14 Secs. Margin of Victory: 2.058 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 2 for 8 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 3 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin(i) 1-29; K. Harvick(i) 30-34; D. Hamlin(i) 35-48; K. Harvick(i) 49-50; D. Hamlin(i) 51-121; K. Harvick(i) 122-130; D. Suarez # 131-144; D. Hamlin(i) 145-147.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin(i) 4 times for 117 laps; K. Harvick(i) 3 times for 16 laps; D. Suarez # 1 time for 14 laps.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 874; T. Dillon – 845; C. Elliott – 839; R. Smith – 820; E. Sadler – 783; D. Wallace Jr. # – 766; D. Suarez # – 759; B. Scott – 755; B. Gaughan – 736; R. Reed – 652.

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pocono_080114_hamlinNASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying – IRWIN Tools Night Race
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Friday, August 21, 2015

1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 131.407 mph.
2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 131.263 mph.
3. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 130.655 mph.
4. (55) David Ragan, Toyota, 130.460 mph.
5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 130.344 mph.
6. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 130.327 mph.
7. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 130.300 mph.
8. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 130.123 mph.
9. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 130.053 mph.
10. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 129.947 mph.
11. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 129.447 mph.
12. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 128.848 mph.
13. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 129.675 mph.
14. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 129.351 mph.
15. (21) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 129.212 mph.
16. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 129.151 mph.
17. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 128.822 mph.
18. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 128.701 mph.
19. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 128.606 mph.
20. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 128.537 mph.
21. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 128.262 mph.
22. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 128.193 mph.
23. (78) Martin Truex Jr, Chevrolet, 128.159 mph.
24. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 127.988 mph.
25. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 128.563 mph.
26. (9) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 128.253 mph.
27. (34) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, 128.176 mph.
28. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 127.920 mph.
29. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 127.801 mph.
30. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 127.605 mph.
31. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 127.563 mph.
32. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 127.537 mph.
33. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, 127.461 mph.
34. (32) Josh Wise, Ford, 127.368 mph.
35. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 127.241 mph.
36. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 127.208 mph.
37. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, Owner Points
38. (23) JJ Yeley(i), Toyota, Owner Points
39. (40) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Owner Points
40. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, Owner Points
41. (98) Timmy Hill(i), Ford, Owner Points
42. (83) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, Owner Points
43. (33) Mike Bliss(i), Chevrolet, Owner Points

3 drivers failed to qualify.

44. (30) Travis Kvapil(i), Chevrolet, 126.545 mph.
45. (26) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, 125.906 mph.
46. (62) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 125.150 mph.

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July 18, 2015

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

LOUDON, N.H. – To Denny Hamlin, it was just hard short-track racing for the win.

To runner-up Austin Dillon, it was unnecessarily aggressive driving that led to Hamlin’s victory in the Lakes Region 200 NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

On Lap 179 of 200 at the Magic Mile, Hamlin drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the inside of Dillon’s No. 33 Chevrolet. Hamlin slid up the track into Dillon, broke the No. 33’s momentum and took the lead.

Eventual third- and fourth-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch also passed Dillon, who later regained the positions he lost to Keselowski and Busch but ran out of time in his pursuit of Hamlin.

Earlier in the race Hamlin had two similar incidents with Busch, his teammate. And though Busch didn’t appear particularly annoyed with Hamlin’s tactics, Dillon was incensed.

“He got to me, and I figured he was going to race, but he never even wanted to,” Dillon said. “He wrecked his teammate and then proceeded to try and wreck me, and if I had gotten back to him, it would have happened to him.”

Hamlin wrote off the contact to all-out racing at a one-mile flat track.

“The bottom line is, if you don’t have any air on the outside of you, you just can’t hold it,” Hamlin said. “There was an example of that about three times today … I want to thank ‘Wheels’ (crew chief Mike Wheeler) for giving me the dominant car. We had the best car, and just, wow, what a day.”

In Hamlin’s view, Dillon wasn’t blameless either.

“Well, he jumped the restart, for one,” Hamlin said. “I’m the control car, but that’s fine. Eventually I was going to get back around him anyway. Same thing—I was a fender ahead, and he drove in there knowing that he was going to have to hold me low to hold the position, and I just washed up into him.

“But that’s two guys on a short track racing for the win.”

Dillon clearly had a different opinion.

“What is racing, if you can’t race side-by-side for more than a corner?” Dillon asked rhetorically. “He never even went through a corner with me, the whole race. He didn’t want to. He just moved me. Missed the corner. Wrecked me.

“I’m fine with racing rough. I promise you, I can do it to anybody. But if we’re going to race like that, I need to know before you get to the first corner. Give me a corner at least.”

Dillon indicated there might be some payback in the offing but wouldn’t reveal how or when.

“I’m not going to talk about it,” Dillon said. “He won’t be ready.”

Hamlin’s reply? “We’ve both got race cars.”

Dillon got the lead on Lap 175 moments after a restart following the sixth and final caution for Brian Scott’s blown engine.

Both Hamlin and Dillon had stayed out on old tires under the previous yellow, but Keselowski came to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 142. As it turned out, the new tires made little difference.

“It was the right call and probably got us to third, instead of fourth or fifth,” Keselowski said. “We just weren’t as fast as the 33 and 20 were. … We just weren’t fast enough this weekend.”

Rookie Daniel Suarez ran fifth, followed by Ty Dillon, Regan Smith, Darrell Wallace Jr., Chase Elliott and Brennan Poole. Series leader Chris Buescher finished 14th, one lap down, and saw his lead in the standings shrink to 31 points over second-place Elliott.

NASCAR XFINITY Series Race – Lakes Region 200
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Saturday, July 18, 2015

1. (1) Denny Hamlin(i), Toyota, 200, $52101.
2. (6) Austin Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200, $32261.
3. (4) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 200, $27038.
4. (2) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 200, $26186.
5. (3) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 200, $27768.
6. (7) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 200, $23909.
7. (8) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200, $23253.
8. (11) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Ford, 200, $24948.
9. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 200, $23720.
10. (13) Brennan Poole, Chevrolet, 200, $23494.
11. (10) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 200, $22467.
12. (14) Ben Rhodes, Chevrolet, 199, $22341.
13. (21) Ryan Reed, Ford, 199, $22188.
14. (20) Chris Buescher, Ford, 199, $21935.
15. (19) JJ Yeley, Toyota, 199, $22209.
16. (15) Dakoda Armstrong, Ford, 199, $21681.
17. (17) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 199, $21755.
18. (28) Eric McClure, Toyota, 198, $21402.
19. (23) Jeremy Clements, Chevrolet, 198, $21352.
20. (16) Blake Koch, Toyota, 198, $21802.
21. (25) Cale Conley #, Toyota, 198, $21200.
22. (24) David Starr, Toyota, 198, $21144.
23. (18) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 198, $21093.
24. (26) Dylan Lupton, Chevrolet, 198, $21028.
25. (27) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 197, $21142.
26. (31) Peyton Sellers #, Chevrolet, 195, $20957.
27. (36) Derek White, Dodge, 195, $20921.
28. (33) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Clutch, 174, $20885.
29. (5) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, Engine, 165, $20850.
30. (35) Todd Peck(i), Chevrolet, Fuel Pump, 156, $21115.
31. (37) Mike Harmon, Dodge, Brakes, 111, $20779.
32. (38) Derrike Cope, Chevrolet, Brakes, 98, $14744.
33. (29) Matt Wallace, Toyota, Vibration, 84, $14723.
34. (12) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, Brakes, 46, $20703.
35. (40) Matt Frahm, Chevrolet, Brakes, 42, $14651.
36. (34) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, Brakes, 40, $13234.
37. (22) Ross Chastain #, Chevrolet, Accident, 36, $18234.
38. (39) Josh Reaume #, Dodge, Brakes, 24, $11234.
39. (32) Harrison Rhodes #, Chevrolet, Engine, 16, $16234.
40. (30) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 3, $9234.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 98.342 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 09 Mins, 06 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.516 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 38 laps.
Lead Changes: 12 among 7 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin(i) 0; K. Busch(i) 1-22; B. Keselowski(i) 23-39; D. Lupton 40-42; D. Hamlin(i) 43-44; K. Busch(i) 45-47; D. Hamlin(i) 48-119; B. Scott 120-121; A. Dillon(i) 122-123; D. Wallace Jr. # 124; D. Hamlin(i) 125-173; A. Dillon(i) 174-178; D. Hamlin(i) 179-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin(i) 4 times for 145 laps; K. Busch(i) 2 times for 25 laps; B. Keselowski(i) 1 time for 17 laps; A. Dillon(i) 2 times for 7 laps; D. Lupton 1 time for 3 laps; B. Scott 1 time for 2 laps; D. Wallace Jr. # 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: C. Buescher – 623; C. Elliott – 592; T. Dillon – 585; R. Smith – 564; E. Sadler – 555; D. Wallace Jr. # – 547; D. Suarez # – 516; B. Gaughan – 506; R. Reed – 502; B. Scott – 494.

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pocono_080114_hamlinNumbers Never Lie: Hamlin Has Tricky Triangle Figured Out

Pocono Raceway is one of Denny Hamlin’s best tracks.

And Denny Hamlin is one of the best to ever race at Pocono.

At least that’s what the numbers say.

Judging by his statistics, it seems the Virginia native feels right at home at the 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track. In 18 starts at the Tricky Triangle, he’s earned more wins (four), poles (three) and top fives (nine) than he has at any track besides Martinsville.

But Hamlin’s pattern of Pocono dominance transcends personal significance. His four wins are tied for the third-most all-time at Pocono, behind only Jeff Gordon (six) and Bill Elliott (five), and no active driver lays claim to more Coors Light Pole Awards there than Hamlin’s three.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying – FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks
Dover International Speedway
Dover, Delaware
Friday, May 29, 2015
1. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 160.121 mph.
2. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 159.723 mph.
3. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 159.681 mph.
4. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 159.674 mph.
5. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 159.596 mph.
6. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 159.497 mph.
7. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 159.483 mph.
8. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 159.229 mph.

AUDIO: THE FINAL LAP WEEKLY #360 SPENCER GALLAGHER / MONSTER MILE DOVER PREVIEW

9. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 159.046 mph.
10. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 158.975 mph. Continue reading “2015 NASCAR CUP SERIES DOVER STARTING LINEUP – DENNY HAMLIN ON POLE”