Hamlin, FedEx Racing Sixth at Martinsville Speedway
On a day when more than twenty percent of the race was run under caution, Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team knew track position would ultimately decide the race. Passing at Martinsville is an exercise in patience as the racing is tight and the opportunities to make up considerable ground few. With a car that was very good, and with a driver that knows his way around the famous half-mile track, only a lack of track position when it mattered and a couple of slow stops kept Denny Hamlin from challenging for the win.
He’d reach the top-ten by the end of the race, but a succession of cautions leading up to the green-white-checkered flag kept the FedEx Freight Chevrolet mired in lapped traffic and unable to climb higher than sixth on the day. It was Denny Hamlin’s 17th top-ten finish of the season and it moves him up to eighth in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championships with four races remaining.
“I think we had a better than sixth place FedEx Chevy today but to leave here with a top-ten finish after some frustrating races lately is good for this team,” said Denny Hamlin. “We spent an awful lot of time just trying to get into the top twenty and then into the top ten and didn’t really have a chance to race the leaders today but had some slow stops and some damage so I would say we made the best of the situation.”
Jimmie Johnson continued his string of winning performances at Martinsville with the win on Sunday. Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five.
Denny Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley finished 13th and 42nd, respectively. Tony Stewart remains in fourth place in the Chase standings after an up and down afternoon while Yeley was forced from the race when he lost his engine just after the halfway point.
Starting 30th in Sunday’s Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Denny Hamlin had his work cut out for him. Immediately following the drop of the green flag, Denny Hamlin wasted no time showing what the FedEx Freight Chevrolet could do. The run proved to be one of the longer, uninterrupted, runs of the day and Denny Hamlin took advantage – navigating two lanes of traffic to gain four places before the caution flew on lap 45.
On pit road, crew chief Mike Ford called for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment but before sending Denny Hamlin out to restart 29th.
Under green again, and with the car better following the first set of changes, Denny Hamlin worked forward to 24th before the caution flew again on lap 69. Ford and the crew were ready to make their first track position play by only changing the right side tires. Intended to get Denny Hamlin out quick, the stop was uncharacteristically slow and the #11 lost one spot and Denny Hamlin would line up to restart 25th on 74.
Short green flag runs betweens cautions on laps 82 and 93 saw the field shuffled by pit strategies and Denny Hamlin had his first opportunity to climb into the top-twenty.
Almost immediately following the restart on lap 97, traffic bottled up in front of Denny Hamlin and contact with #22 pushed in the left-front fender to the point it was rubbing against the tire. With each lap the rub worsened and the crew was concerned that the rub could cut the tire. Almost exactly at the point Denny Hamlin and Ford had decided to bring the #11 onto pit road under green, and risk losing several laps, they received a break in the form of a perfectly timed caution. The crew would call Denny Hamlin onto pit road on four consecutive laps to make repairs to the left front, ultimately clearing the damage from the tire. Carefully orchestrating and timing the repairs to keep Denny Hamlin on the lead lap, the crew completed the repairs and lined Denny Hamlin up to restart 34th on 126.
Again on the charge forward, Denny Hamlin gained spots quickly. Working the preferred inside line at times, but also pulling to the outside when traffic stalled along the stripe. Denny Hamlin drove up to 20th by the time the caution flew again on lap 166.
With much of the field split by fuel strategies, each consecutive caution essentially flipped the field. This was evident for the #11 team when the caution flag flew no lap 214 with Denny Hamlin sitting 23rd, but because they stayed out, he would restart sixth.
Denny Hamlin broke into the top-five for the first time on the day on lap 228 when he worked past Jeff Gordon on the inside. Twenty laps later, Denny Hamlin passed Martin Truex Jr. for third.
Just as they had gained position on the previous caution, a stop on lap 250 for fuel, tires and air pressure adjustment had Denny Hamlin out to restart 22nd on lap 254. Once again, Denny Hamlin would have to fight traffic to get back to the front, but the immediate goal was racing the cars on the same pit sequence knowing the field was likely to flip again on the next caution.
That was the case on lap 295 when Denny Hamlin would again stay out and take the green in sixth place. Like he did the last time he restarted near the front, he pushed past Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Biffle to claim third place on lap 320.
Denny Hamlin took the lap 341 caution in third and visited pit road for a wedge and air pressure adjustment, along with four tires and fuel before being sent out to restart 16th. With the car handling much better Denny Hamlin was able to drive forward to 13th and put the FedEx Chevy in position for the stretch run when the caution flew again on lap 395. In for only two tires, Denny Hamlin restarted seventh on lap 402 and worked past Kevin Harvick for sixth on lap 408.
As the final one hundred laps counted down, Denny Hamlin found himself very much at the mercy of the lapped traffic that restarts on the inside lane after each caution. At a time when Denny Hamlin and the #11 team needed a sustained green flag run to clear lapped traffic and take a shot at the lead cars, they were handed the exact opposite. Eight cautions totaling 40 laps over the final one hundred laps of the race kept Denny Hamlin at the mercy of the lapped traffic on each occasion. He would ride out the caution riddled race, including a green-white-checkered flag finish, in sixth place.
The Chase for the Nextel Cup continues next weekend when the series visits Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 28.
