At last, Denny Hamlin won before his home crowd, dominating the 400 lap race taking the lead on lap four and leading a race-high 298 laps easily keeping ahead of second-place Kurt Busch.
Hamlin’s best and only real challenger, Jeff Gordon, was sent up the track on a late race restart by Clint Bowyer, but recovered to finish third while Mark Martin was fourth.
Hamlin, who crushed the competition for the past two years at the ¾ mile oval had nothing to show for it until Saturday night.
"This is my house. It has been for the last two years, we just haven’t got the win to show it," said Hamlin. "Finally today our Toyota showed that we’re a championship contender."
As the 26th and last race in the "regular season," which sets the 12 drivers to make the Chase. Notably, Matt Kenseth, who won the first two races this year, then fell off the radar scope came into the race in 12th place, but, finished 25th.
Brian Vickers did make the Chase, the first time for himself, and for the first time in the three year history of the Red Bull Toyota team by finishing 7th. "The past ten weeks has proven the team’s commitment no one gave up and, it paid off."
Kyle Busch, the enfant terrible of NASCAR, a four-time winner, drove hard, finished fifth but was eight points behind Vickers said: "We didn’t have the best of years to be consistent and unfortunately that bit us."
Next week’s race at New Hampshire Speedway is the first of the final ten races called the Chase to the Sprint Cup and Mark Martin is the top seed, as the points were reset.
Hamlin’s best and only real challenger, Jeff Gordon, was sent up the track on a late race restart by Clint Bowyer, but recovered to finish third while Mark Martin was fourth.
Hamlin, who crushed the competition for the past two years at the ¾ mile oval had nothing to show for it until Saturday night.
"This is my house. It has been for the last two years, we just haven’t got the win to show it," said Hamlin. "Finally today our Toyota showed that we’re a championship contender."
As the 26th and last race in the "regular season," which sets the 12 drivers to make the Chase. Notably, Matt Kenseth, who won the first two races this year, then fell off the radar scope came into the race in 12th place, but, finished 25th.
Brian Vickers did make the Chase, the first time for himself, and for the first time in the three year history of the Red Bull Toyota team by finishing 7th. "The past ten weeks has proven the team’s commitment no one gave up and, it paid off."
Kyle Busch, the enfant terrible of NASCAR, a four-time winner, drove hard, finished fifth but was eight points behind Vickers said: "We didn’t have the best of years to be consistent and unfortunately that bit us."
Next week’s race at New Hampshire Speedway is the first of the final ten races called the Chase to the Sprint Cup and Mark Martin is the top seed, as the points were reset.