Hamlin credits crew for victory
Denny Hamlin gave Joe Gibbs Racing its first victory in NASCAR’s Sprint All-Star race by using clean air to hold off Kevin Harvick at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on Saturday.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Joe Gibbs, who got his first All-Star victory in 24 races.
Hamlin won the pole for the race, was decent through the first four 25-lap segments, but was slotted sixth based on average finish for the mandatory final pit stop.
His No. 11 team, one of the top pit crews in the Sprint Cup Series, got him back on track in first.
“The pit crew just knocked it out of the park,” Hamlin said. “That was prime-time right there.”
Hamlin was aided on the final pit stop when Brad Keselowski, who raced Hamlin off pit road but exited second, was flagged for speeding.
Keselowski dropped to the rear of the field — taking him out of conten- tion — and putting Kurt Busch, Harvick and Kasey Kahne right behind Hamlin.
Hamlin controlled the restart and jumped out to a huge lead, and Harvick moved into second and tried to chase down the leader.
But it wasn’t going to be an easy task — every driver in the 20-car field wanted to be out front for the final 10-lap sprint to the finish because NASCAR’s current rules package has shown that the leader, in clean air, is very difficult to pass.
Although Harvick briefly closed the gap, he had to get out of the throttle when his car drifted too far up the track, and he never got close.
Hamlin collected the $1 million prize while also giving manufacturer Toyota its first win in the All-Star race.
“Everybody wants to be an All-Star,” Hamlin said from victory lane.
Harvick finished second, Busch third and Jeff Gordon finished fourth in his final All-Star race.
Rain washes out Indy pole day: After Ryan Hunter-Reay posted the faster of two four-lap runs during Indianapolis 500 qualifications, finishing with an average speed of 229.845 on the 2.5-mile oval, heavy rain washed out the rest of qualifying and both times from the completed runs. Pole Day for next Sunday’s race was rescheduled for Sunday.