Denny eats ’em up
Holds off Larson to give Gibbs 1st win of season
LOUDON, N.H. — Denny Hamlin was burdened by unrealistic expectations at the start of yesterday’s running of the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Overton’s 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but in the end still came out on top of the field.
Hamlin, who was driving a backup car, withstood a late challenge from Kyle Larson and took the checkered flag on the Magic Mile — snapping Joe Gibbs Racing’s 20-race winless streak and becoming the first team member to secure a slot in the NASCAR playoffs in September.
Three Gibbs drivers — Hamlin (54 laps), Kyle Busch (95) and Matt Kenseth (four) — led at some point in the race.
“For the last five or six weeks we’ve kind of worked our way back, having good speed but not being able make it happen for us at the end of races,” said Gibbs. “For all of our guys we got off to a slow start this year. But the thing I would like to say about our entire group is that nobody was pointing fingers.
“We just went to work and I think our guys back home working on the cars took it the same way. I’m hoping this gets us going in the right direction.”
Hamlin, the operator of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, moved into fifth place in the Cup standings with 589 points. Hamlin’s determined driving over the final 20 laps locked down a Stage 3 victory for his third stage win of the season.
Hamlin became the fifth active driver to record three victories on the Magic Mile, and now has 30 career wins on the senior circuit. Hamlin, who won the July race at NHMS in 2007 and the September Chase race in 2012, now has 14 top-10 finishes in 23 starts at NHMS.
“It just seems like the flat track short track program has been pretty good for us this year,” said Hamlin. “We executed nicely, made no mistakes and capitalized when other guys faltered a little bit.
“Everything went right to win the race. It is a great feeling and I know we’ve been getting better and better as the year’s gone on. We definitely needed a win for the organization and to get some momentum going with the playoffs coming up.”
Larson, who began the race in the 39th place, moved into second place on Lap 277 and made steady gains on Hamlin on the stretch run. Cup points leader Martin Truex Jr. finished third and Kenseth, the defending 301 champion, was fourth.
Kenseth steadily gained on Truex through the middle laps of Stage 3 and surged into the lead on the backstretch of the 160th lap. The race went under caution on Lap 262 and the leaders except Dale Earnhardt Jr. all elected to visit pit road.
Hamlin dusted Kenseth off turn four on Lap 267 to take the lead and opened a sizable lead.
“I think that we still have some work to do to be guys that contend for a win every single week,” said Hamlin. “Today was just a bonus and it was a good points day overall.”