Hamlin cruises to Busch victory
BROOKLYN, Mich. | Denny Hamlin fought off a mid-race challenge from Matt Kenseth, then drove away for a dominating victory Saturday in the Carfax 250 NASCAR Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
Denny Hamlin, who will also race here in today’s 3M Performance 400 Nextel Cup event, picked up his second Busch win of the season and the fourth of his career.
A crash in Friday’s practice forced Denny Hamlin’s crew to scramble to get his car back in shape for racing.
But it was ready for the start of the 125-lap race — and so was Denny Hamlin.
Denny Hamlin swapped the lead with Matt Kenseth a couple of times before taking control and turning the race on Michigan’s 2-mile oval into a snoozer.
Denny Hamlin led four times during the race for 69 laps, including the last 40 laps.
There were three caution flags, all during the first 36 laps, and Denny Hamlin took advantage of the green-flag racing the rest of the way.
He steadily pulled away, beating Matt Kenseth to the finish line by 6.988 seconds — the length of the front straightaway.
Mark Martin, who had just taken fourth place away from Greg Biffle, ran out of gas on the final lap and wound up 14th.
Denny Hamlin saw that other drivers were trying to stretch their final load of gas and he was so far in front on the last lap, he pulled a fast one on his crew chief, telling him "Hey, we’re running out of gas."
Seconds later, with a stunned silence on the other end of the radio, Denny Hamlin said, "Just kidding."
Later, Denny Hamlin said, "We ran out (of gas) at Indy and it wasn’t so funny. This one, we could have coasted if we had run out."
He then praised his crew, saying, "I can’t say enough for those guys for putting this car back in one piece.
"It was even better than it was before."
