Hamlin earns his fourth NASCAR Cup win at Bristol
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, passing Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the final laps for his fourth victory at the famed short track.
Hamlin also won at NASCAR’s bullring last September.
This one was much different. Tire issues hampered most everyone all afternoon as only five cars finished on the lead lap — the first time that has happened in the Cup Series in 20 years.
The Gibbs cars were the class of the field.
“My favorite racetrack!” Hamlin exclaimed over his radio while taking the checkered flag. “We got another.”
He was booed — no surprise considering Hamlin has become arguably the series’ biggest villain — as he stood atop his No. 11 Toyota following a smoky burnout.
It was Hamlin’s 52nd career win and locks him into the playoffs. Brad Keselowski finished third in a Ford, Alex Bowman was fourth in a Chevrolet and Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
“It was weird,” Larson said. “I accidentally finished fifth. I’ll take it. I hope I never have to run another race like that again.”
The other two Gibbs cars — driven by Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell — finished ninth and 10th, respectively.
The race was chaotic from the start, with cars burning through tires at such an alarming rate that NASCAR issued each team an extra set. That gave them 11 sets total, including the one used in qualifying.
It made for four hours of tire management that gave control to drivers and crew chiefs. It also led to the most lead changes (54) in NASCAR’s short-track history, breaking the previous mark of 40 set in 1991 at Bristol.
JGR handled it better than the rest of the field.
“Our Toyotas are really working well right now,” Truex said.
NASCAR returned Bristol to “normal” for the first time in four years for the spring race. The track added red clay each of the last three years. Reviews were mixed, and as the novelty wore off, sub-par racing inside the high-banked oval overshadowed any excitement that came with the series running on dirt for the first time since 1970.
In an effort to improve the racing and make sure the track had two equal lanes, workers put down a resin-based traction compound through the turns. It was far from perfect.