Hamlin King of the Road in Win at the Glen

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WATKINS GLEN, NY – RIS – Denny Hamlin had led a lap at Watkins Glen International, but he led 10 laps today en route to the first road course victory of his career.  Hamlin held off Martin Truex, Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano for the win in the Cheez-it 355 at the Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.  Hamlin stayed low on the restart with three laps to go and watched others try to go outside and never gave up the lead.  It got dicey on the last lap with Brad Keselowski getting into Truex.  That allowed Keselowski teammate Joey Logano to finish second.  Keselowski finished third.  Truex ended up eighth.

Making the win even more special was the fact that Hamlin suffered back spasms all day.  Since he burned the tires off his No. 11 Toyota Camry, it was a tough walk to victory lane for the winner. 

“Really doubted being in the race car today,” Hamlin said.  “I finally have won at all the racetracks.”

Hamlin now has won at superspeedways, intermediate, short, and road courses.  It was his first win since the season-opening Daytona 500.  Hamlin has also won at three big races—Daytona, the Southern 500 at Darlington and the All-Star race. 

The final lap was the most aggressive lap of the race.  Hamlin called it “hectic.”  Keselowski apologized to Truex for turning him.

“Obviously, it’s my fault,” Keselowski said.  “I wanted to be on the outside and make a crossover and see if I could get both Truex and Hamlin.  I didn’t think he’d come back up the track.  He got the bad end of it.”

Truex, even though he gave Keselowski’s Ford some hard shots on the cool down lap, called it just hard racing.

“Simple as that.  It’s just hard racing,” Truex said.  “I wanted him to know I wasn’t happy after the race.  It’s all good.  I thought I had a run on Hamlin.”

At almost the same time back in the pack, A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Larson were battling for position, and Allmendinger turned him.  Allmendinger pushed Larson hard into the inside wall near the start-finish line, virtually totaling his No. 42 Chevrolet. 

“I just cost Kyle a good finish and I’m mad at myself,” Allmendinger said. “I was happy with today before that last lap.  I don’t race that way.”

Keselowski appeared to have the fastest car in the latter stages of the race.  The No 2 Ford was running out of fuel, but late cautions helped tremendously.  With 14 laps to go, Alex Kennedy’s race car had an engine problem on the front stretch bringing out a caution.  After an earlier red flag stopped the race for a few laps, a second red flag was thrown with seven laps left when Kevin Harvick, teammate Danica Patrick, David Ragan, and Chris Beuscher wrecked after a restart.  The last red flag lasted 16 minutes and 45 seconds.

The earlier red flag involved Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, and Austin Dillon.  This red flag lasted just over 13 minutes.  Though his No. 48 Chevrolet was destroyed, Johnson had a scary moment.

“I remember seeing a door number and I was so thankful that it was the passenger side door and not the driver side,” Johnson said.  “I really hit that car hard.  I was afraid that I might injure him (Stenhouse).  Thankfully, everyone is all right.”

Keselowski led the most laps (28), with pole-sitter Carl Edwards leading 25. 

It was another rough day for Hendrick Motorsports.  The four-car Chevrolet team’s highest finisher was Chase Elliott in 13th place.  Jeff Gordon, driving Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s  No. 88 finished 14th, Kasey Kahne finished 20th, and Johnson finished 40th—last place.

Johnson had many problems.  He was penalized twice on a Lap 14 pit stop.  His crew let a tire get away from them and also got a speeding infraction.  On the pass through penalty for speeding, the crew fueled his car which is not allowed.  After that he came out 38th.  Then the accident with  Stenhouse ended his day.

Danica Patrick ran up front and managed to lead 10 laps during the race, but she ended up finishing 21st.  SHR teammates Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Kurt Busch finished fifth, 32nd, and 11th.

After a week off, the NSCS drivers return to action at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 20th for the annual night race.

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Status Tms Laps
1 6 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 90 44 4 112.6 Running 1 10
2 7 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 90 40 1 105.9 Running 2 8
3 12 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 90 40 2 119.9 Running 2 28
4 9 47 AJ Allmendinger Kroger/Kingsford Chevrolet 90 37 90.2 Running
5 3 14 Tony Stewart Haas Automation Chevrolet 90 36 83.8 Running
6 5 18 Kyle Busch Snickers Crisper Toyota 90 36 1 117.0 Running 1 4
7 14 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Toyota 90 35 1 101.6 Running 1 1
8 10 1 Jamie McMurray McDonald's Chevrolet 90 33 88.7 Running
9 32 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Spark Ford 90 32 65.8 Running
10 4 20 Matt Kenseth Dollar General Toyota 90 31 95.2 Running
11 17 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet 90 31 1 83.0 Running 1 3
12 20 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 90 29 61.2 Running
13 16 24 Chase Elliott # SunEnergy1 Chevrolet 90 28 79.9 Running
14 21 88 Jeff Gordon Axalta Chevrolet 90 27 67.6 Running
15 1 19 Carl Edwards Stanley Toyota 90 27 1 94.4 Running 1 25
16 8 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 90 25 63.0 Running
17 11 95 Michael McDowell Thrivent Financial Chevrolet 90 24 57.2 Running
18 28 15 Clint Bowyer PEAK Chevrolet 90 23 68.9 Running
19 19 21 * Ryan Blaney # Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford 90 22 54.3 Running
20 23 5 Kasey Kahne Great Clips Chevrolet 90 21 52.5 Running
21 31 10 Danica Patrick Nature's Bakery Chevrolet 90 21 1 83.1 Running 1 11
22 33 27 Paul Menard Richmond/Menards Chevrolet 90 19 72.3 Running
23 40 38 Landon Cassill MDS Transport Ford 90 18 43.7 Running
24 37 32 Boris Said Genesee Beer Ford 90 17 38.2 Running
25 27 44 Brian Scott # Shaw's Supermarket Ford 90 16 67.7 Running
26 39 30 * Josh Wise Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet 90 15 33.6 Running
27 34 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 90 14 55.6 Running
28 22 98 * Cole Whitt RTICcoolers.com Toyota 90 13 64.8 Running
29 2 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet 89 12 74.4 Running
30 25 34 Chris Buescher # CSX Play it Safe Ford 89 11 51.2 Running
31 18 3 Austin Dillon DOW Chevrolet 89 10 35.2 Running
32 15 4 Kevin Harvick Busch Beer Chevrolet 83 9 75.8 Accident
33 26 23 David Ragan Dr Pepper Toyota 83 8 68.7 Accident
34 35 83 Matt DiBenedetto Dustless Blasting Toyota 83 7 65.5 Accident
35 29 7 Regan Smith APC Chevrolet 77 6 29.3 Running
36 36 55 * Alex Kennedy Chevrolet 76 5 47.8 Engine
37 38 46 Michael Annett St.Jude Iowa Tournament of Hope Chevrolet 74 4 24.7 Running
38 30 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford EcoBoost Ford 52 3 62.7 Accident
39 24 16 Greg Biffle Cheez-It Ford 52 2 57.8 Accident
40 13 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's/Jimmie Johnson Foundation Chevrolet 52 1 59.9 Accident