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Hamlin, FedEx Racing Dominant on Way to Third Place at Talladega
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The conversations about the strength of the #11 FedEx Freight Toyota Camry started as soon as the cars took to the track at Talladega Superspeedway. On Friday, though only turning a handful of laps, Denny Hamlin showed enough in practice to put the rest of the Sprint Cup garage on notice. However, all that matters in Cup racing is how you finish on Sunday.
The Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway set up nicely for Hamlin and the #11 team, after leading nine times for 37 laps and showing the FedEx Camry to be the class of the field, an unfortunately timed multi-car wreck had Hamlin mired back in the pack, with only 15 laps to go. While he desperately looked for drafting help, he closed the gap on the lead car and had worked his way into third place as the white flag came out. With designs on the lead, Hamlin's final lap chance would ultimately never come as a caution flag came out to end the race under caution. He crossed the line in third, celebrating a great run but disappointed that he didn't have one final chance to race for the lead.
“It was a really fun race for this entire #11 FedEx team," said Hamlin. “We had a car capable of winning, a car that could do whatever it wanted to do. Whenever I wanted to pull up to somebody's bumper, I would, and when I would push him, I would push as long as my water gauge would let me or as long as they could hang on to it. That's all you can ask for, to have a car as good as ours, the best cars don't always win. You've got to put yourself in position, and we were there with 20 to go and just made a bad move there, got shuffled out and got back to 20th, and with all the cautions all we had time to get to was third place and it just shows how strong our car was.”
The third place finish continues Hamlin's impressive streak of races that dates back five races and has catapulted the third-year driver into fourth place in the driver standings heading to Richmond. He has not finished outside of the top-ten since the Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway in March., and has finished outside of the top-five only once.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch worked his way back from a lap down to claim the win, his second of the season, and again showcase the Toyota engine power that had the Gibbs collective out front for much of the day. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second while Hamlin, David Ragan and Brian Vickers rounded out the top five.
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Hamlin and Busch's JGR teammate Tony Stewart suffered damage when caught up in a lap 173 incident and was forced to settle for a 38th-place finish.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series continues next weekend at Richmond International Raceway
Starting from the seventh position, Hamlin wasted little time hooking up with teammates Busch and Stewart. Together nose to tail, the three Toyota-powered JGR teammates pulled away from the field and showed their fellow competitors precisely the kind of power they would have to beat to win on this day. With Stewart at the point, Busch and Hamlin swapped positions and Hamlin would run in second until pulling out of line and, as is the way of superspeedway racing, dropping all the way back to 17th. On the radio, Hamlin informed the crew that while in the draft, and cut off from the direct air flow, the water temps rose past desired levels.
The first caution of the day flew on lap 21 and Mike Ford called Hamlin onto pit road for two tires and fuel, and a small piece of tape off the front of the car. The quick stop had Hamlin out eighth and he once again found the bumper of the #20 Home Depot Camry and pushed his teammate all the way to the front of the pack. Once the two cleared the pack, Hamlin jumped to the lead and racked up four laps as the race leader.
After dropping back to the field, Hamlin seemed to make a sport of finding drafting partners and using the force of the #11 FedEx Freight Camry to push them to the front. After Stewart, Hamlin pushed both Brian Vickers and Juan Pablo Montoya to the point, finally taking the top spot for the second time on lap 54.
The competitors reached their fuel window under the green flag and on or about lap 60, pit road became a very busy place. Working with his JGR teammates, Hamlin pulled the #11 onto pit road on lap 62 and once again took on only two tires to go with two cans of fuel. Hamlin and Stewart almost immediately regained the lead and the race entered a long stretch of single file racing that saw Hamlin run consistently in the top ten.
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Hamlin pulled the #11 into the pit on lap 105 for left side tires and fuel and he then immediately set about restating the dominance of the car. He pushed the #12 of Ryan Newman to the front on lap 112 and then dove to the yellow line to take the spot for himself.
The caution was out again on lap 116 and again Hamlin came to pit road for two tires and fuel. The FedEx crew worked quick and had Hamlin out first for the restart on lap 121.
Shortly after the restart Hamlin latched on to the back of Elliot Sadler and pushed the #19 to the front of the pack before once again claiming the lead. The caution flag flew for the third time on lap 145 and Hamlin visited pit road for right side tires and enough fuel to make the end of the race. Hamlin restarted first and then briefly relinquished the lead to Dale Earnhardt Jr. before taking the point back.
Hamlin stayed on the track during a short caution on lap 160 and once again brought the field to the green on lap 162. He held the lead until lap 168 when he was shuffled deep in the pack and was then in avoidance mode when six cars were involved in an incident on lap 175.
Though he managed to avoid contact with the spinning cars, he did sacrifice a lot of position and would line up to take the green flag in 18th place on lap 177.
The race would stay green for only three laps but in that time Hamlin flexed the muscle of the #11 to reach eleventh place. He restarted just outside of the top-ten but charged forward, often resorting to the help of the bumper to move past.
As the laps counted down, Hamlin forced his way into the third place behind Busch and Montoya and looked poised to make one last charge for the lead. Unfortunately, his opportunity was lost when the caution flag came out on the last lap to end the race and leave Hamlin in third.