Denny Hamlin, the winningest NASCAR Cup driver in 2010, finally broke into the win column this year holding off Matt Kenseth at Michigan International Speedway.
Hamlin's victory, his 17th career Cup win, makes it 10 different winners in 15 races, most thru 15 races since 2003.
The race, at the two mile oval, was shaping up to be a question of who could finish on fuel, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall with less than ten laps to go after avoiding his teammate, Mark Martin.
That set up one final shoot out.
Hamlin was able to hold off Kenseth and his own Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch. "Still didn't have the fastest car at the end of the race, but through the adjustments, watching lap time, adjusting the car, we got it respectable. Pit crew put us in position to win the race," Hamlin said.
Denny Hamlin called his return to Victory Lane a work in progress.
"These last six or seven weeks I feel we've been as strong as anyone, and it feels good to sneak in there and get this win," Denny Hamlin said. "Everyone knows we've been strong, though we didn't look as strong today as we normally do here."
"I got a bad restart," Kenseth said. "But Carl pushed me to get me back up to Denny. Just didn't have enough time to get around him."
Kyle Busch said there wasn’t enough time left to make run at his teammate "we were pretty fast. We just got a good restart and got by a couple of guys right away and then we could run with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the 17 (Matt Kenseth), but it would take you about 40 laps in order to work them over."
Ironically, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing team ran afoul of NASCAR inspectors when they showed up on Friday with unapproved oil pans which were removed by the series’ officials. Team owner Joe Gibbs took the blame for a "bad decision". Penalties could be announced later this week.
Denny Hamlin said that issue did not affect him in the race. "It doesn't make me drive any differently. Really at that point in the race, I never even thought about any of that stuff that happened earlier this weekend."
After the race Earnhardt Jr. had harsh words for Martin who is known as one of the fairest racers in the stock car world.
"The defining moment probably was getting run into the wall by Mark (Martin). We had fixed the car, we were moving forward and we were doing pretty well at that point, but, you can’t do nothing about getting run over or getting run into the wall. He is older me, been racing forever and knows a lot more than I’ll ever get or he has forgot more stuff than I’ll never know. Still, I take better care of people than that."
Mark Martin said "I don’t have a history of having problems. I don’t think I have one now. I think we will get it sorted out. I feel like I give everybody on the race track respect. I made a mistake."
After the race the Hendrick Motorsports teammates talked things over and said there were no more issues between them.
Hamlin's victory, his 17th career Cup win, makes it 10 different winners in 15 races, most thru 15 races since 2003.
The race, at the two mile oval, was shaping up to be a question of who could finish on fuel, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall with less than ten laps to go after avoiding his teammate, Mark Martin.
That set up one final shoot out.
Hamlin was able to hold off Kenseth and his own Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch. "Still didn't have the fastest car at the end of the race, but through the adjustments, watching lap time, adjusting the car, we got it respectable. Pit crew put us in position to win the race," Hamlin said.
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| Denny Hamlin ahead of Matt Kensett - Photo: nascar.com |
Denny Hamlin called his return to Victory Lane a work in progress.
"These last six or seven weeks I feel we've been as strong as anyone, and it feels good to sneak in there and get this win," Denny Hamlin said. "Everyone knows we've been strong, though we didn't look as strong today as we normally do here."
"I got a bad restart," Kenseth said. "But Carl pushed me to get me back up to Denny. Just didn't have enough time to get around him."
Kyle Busch said there wasn’t enough time left to make run at his teammate "we were pretty fast. We just got a good restart and got by a couple of guys right away and then we could run with the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and the 17 (Matt Kenseth), but it would take you about 40 laps in order to work them over."
Ironically, the entire Joe Gibbs Racing team ran afoul of NASCAR inspectors when they showed up on Friday with unapproved oil pans which were removed by the series’ officials. Team owner Joe Gibbs took the blame for a "bad decision". Penalties could be announced later this week.
Denny Hamlin said that issue did not affect him in the race. "It doesn't make me drive any differently. Really at that point in the race, I never even thought about any of that stuff that happened earlier this weekend."
After the race Earnhardt Jr. had harsh words for Martin who is known as one of the fairest racers in the stock car world.
"The defining moment probably was getting run into the wall by Mark (Martin). We had fixed the car, we were moving forward and we were doing pretty well at that point, but, you can’t do nothing about getting run over or getting run into the wall. He is older me, been racing forever and knows a lot more than I’ll ever get or he has forgot more stuff than I’ll never know. Still, I take better care of people than that."
Mark Martin said "I don’t have a history of having problems. I don’t think I have one now. I think we will get it sorted out. I feel like I give everybody on the race track respect. I made a mistake."
After the race the Hendrick Motorsports teammates talked things over and said there were no more issues between them.