Hamlin takes checkered after 13 cautions
Fans boo victor after Talladega’s longest race
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Denny Hamlin finally got a playoff win in a messy wreck-fest that took three overtimes Sunday, the longest race in Talladega Superspeedway history.
Hamlin made the winning pass on the 200th lap —12 more (nearly 32 miles) longer than scheduled — with a three-wide sweep coming out of the fourth turn. The Daytona 500 winner, who grew up in Chesterfield County, had the throttle open on the No. 11 Toyota to nip Matt DiBenedetto and Erik Jones at the finish line.
Hamlin, a title favorite who has had a rough start through the first half of the playoffs, dipped below the out-of-bounds line to take the
lead, and NASCAR needed several minutes to determine if the move was illegal.
The crowd of15,000 — the most allowed to attend the Alabama
superspeedway — booed Hamlin as he was declared the winner. He was basically one of the last title contenders standing after 13 caution flags, two more than the
previous record, and he again denied blue-collar favorite DiBenedetto his first career Cup victory.
DiBenedetto, who stood devastated on pit road after a secondplace finish, was then dropped to 21st in the final finishing order. NASCAR penalized him for forcing William Byron below the line
would’ve scored there, we would’ve had good momentum and the outcome of the game and the score of the game could’ve looked a lot different.”
The truth is Armstrong’s effort against Clemson (3-0, 2-0 ACC) — 24-of-43 passing for 270 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions, plus 22 carries for a team-best 89 rushing yards — signified yet another a step in the right direction.
It’s just that one-handed interceptions that gain the top spot on ESPN’s top 10 plays of the day, like Booth’s did, tend to stick in a quarterback’s memory.
Booth’s breathtaking interception in front of 6-foot-7 freshman wide receiver Lavel Davis — to whom Booth was giving up seven inches in height — put the brakes on a promising U.Va. drive to open the second half that reached Clemson’s 19-yard line when the Cavaliers were trailing 24-10.
It was as close as U.Va. (1-1, 1-1) would get in the second half to slicing Clemson’s advantage to single digits.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence was 25-of-38 passing for 329 yards and three touchdowns, and running back Travis Etienne had 14 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown and five catches for 114 yards and a TD. But U.Va. stayed within reach for a while.
Clemson’s lead didn’t stretch to more than two scores in the second half until there was less than four minutes left in the third quarter, making it a far more competitive affair than U.Va.’s 62-17 loss in December to Clemson in the ACC championship game.
Still, it wasn’t what U.Va. coach Bronco Mendenhall was seeking.
“We had higher expectations,” Mendenhall said. “We came to win the game. We didn’t come just for benchmarks.”
Against N.C. State next weekend, U.Va. will see a team that got on track Saturday with a 30-29 win at No. 24 Pittsburgh. But the Wolfpack still surrendered 411 passing yards to Pitt’s Kenny Pickett — a career-best for the senior quarterback. N.C. State (2-1, 2-1) is also one of nine remaining teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision that hasn’t intercepted a pass this season.
Those have to be encouraging numbers for Armstrong, whose favorite target at Clemson was receiver Billy Kemp (career-high 10 catches for 96 yards).
“He did amazing,” Mendenhall said regarding Armstrong’s performance at Clemson. “Brennan is tough mentally and physically. The stage wasn’t too big, the team wasn’t too good.”
Three things we learned
After going through more than two months of testing without having to quarantine players for either coronavirus positives or contact tracing, U.Va. had seven players and a full-time coach miss Saturday’s game because of coronavirus-related issues. Mendenhall wouldn’t identify the players or the coach after the game.
Before the season, Mendenhall indicated he’d be foolish if he didn’t figure out ways to get 6-foot-4 backup quarterback Keytaon Thompson on the field. It turns out Mendenhall did indeed have plans for Thompson. He lined up at receiver Saturday on first-and-goal and caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Armstrong with 6:05 left in the third quarter to cut Clemson’s lead to 27-17.
It could’ve been a much different scenario at halftime, when U.Va. trailed 24-10, if the Cavaliers’ defense had been more adept at getting off the field on third downs. Clemson picked up first downs on 7 of 10 third-down opportunities in the first half, including one scoring drive that featured conversions of third-and-9 and a third-and-15 from U.Va.’s 27 when Lawrence found receiver Amari Rodgers on a perfect touchdown strike to the back of the end zone with 5:23 left in the second quarter, putting Clemson up 17-3.
Timeout frenzy
When Virginia used its final timeout of the first half with 30 seconds left in the first quarter, jokes circulated on Twitter that Mendenhall must’ve been temporarily replaced former U.Va. men’s basketball coach Pete Gillen, who was known for routinely burning through timeouts in a hurry during his time in Charlottesville. Yet, Mendenhall had his reasons.
“Clemson is hopeful to have shock and awe right from the beginning and put you on your heels and never let you recover,” Mendenhall said. “I was absolutely willing to use timeouts and slow the pace to make sure our guys were ready, and they were.”