Denny Hamlin wins at Chicago; Johnson and Harvick have words after race
The first race of the Chase got off to a horrible start for Denny Hamlin. It ended in victory lane.
Hamlin, who went sliding down the track in turns three and four on the second lap of the race, took the lead on a restart with five laps to go and drove away from the field for a win at Chicago on Sunday. With the win, Hamlin is now automatically advancing to the second round of the Chase in three weeks.
Hamlin restarted third on the final restart. He dove to the inside of Jeff Gordon, who was in second, and went three-wide with Gordon and Kurt Busch in turn one. Gordon wasn’t able to keep his car stuck to the track in the middle groove and Hamlin got past both for the lead.
Oh, and Hamlin tore his right ACL less than two weeks ago playing a game of pickup basketball.
Dave Rogers, Hamlin’s crew chief, made the decision to go for track position on the final restart. While many cars came to the pits for fresh tires, Busch, Gordon and Hamlin stayed on the track. That’s why they restarted in the top three. Busch ended up finishing third while Gordon slid back.
Carl Edwards, one of the drivers who took fresh tires on the final caution, finished second.
While Hamlin is moving on in the Chase, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion is in 16th (and last) place in the Chase standings. Kevin Harvick cut a tire after contact on a restart and ended up crashing. He finished 42nd. After the race, Harvick said he had confidence that he could be one of the 12 drivers moving on to the second round of the Chase. He has 22 top-10 finishes in 27 races.
The contact that caused Harvick’s cut tire came from Jimmie Johnson, who was also bumped by Joey Logano. After the race, Johnson went to talk to Harvick, who punched him in the chest.
Hamlin started near the back of the pack because the field was set by practice speeds as qualifying was rained out. Hamlin didn’t have an especially quick lap in practice and was in an incident with AJ Allmendinger. While his car didn’t have any damage, he ended up losing a lap because he had limped around to the pits on flat tires. He had made up that lap in the early stages of the second half of the race.
Given the way the summer months have gone in the Cup Series, it was also fitting a Joe Gibbs Racing car had won the first race of the Chase. Gibbs cars had won seven of the 10 races entering the Chase. And they have the top four drivers in the standings now after the first Chase race.
12 of the top 14 finishers were Chase drivers. Here’s how the standings look. As of now, Hamlin and the top 11 drivers in points would move on to the next round.
1. Matt Kenseth, 2,052 points
2. Denny Hamin (1 win), 2,050
3. Kyle Busch, 2,049
4. Carl Edwards, 2,049
5. Joey Logano, 2,048
6. Kurt Busck, 2,048
7. Jimmie Johnson 2,045
8. Ryan Newman, 2,040
9. Brad Keselowski, 2,039
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 2,038
11. Martin Truex Jr., 2,035
12. Jeff Gordon, 2,031
13. Jamie McMurray, 2,028
14. Paul Menard, 2,027
15. Clint Bowyer, 2,025
16. Kevin Harvick, 2,009
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
