Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin started third in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. But, unlike Joe Gibbs Racings teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., who finished first and second, Hamlin had difficulty holding his track position.
The driver of the No. 11 Toyota was ninth for the final restart on Lap 239 of 312, and he charged to fifth at the finish, giving JGR three of the top five positions. Nevertheless, Hamlin was far from satisfied with his second top five and third top 10 of the season.
“Our Camry was fast,” Hamlin said. “We just got set back by some track position stuff–a little bit in the pits again. Just had a couple of bad restarts. We started (ninth) and drove up to fifth. Super-fast Camry. We should have been right there where my teammates were. We just didn’t keep the track position quite as good as they did.
“Frustrating. Trying to get track position when you have a fast car. You just can’t drive through the field. You have to be patient and wait on everyone to kind of mess up or you’ve got try to run a different line, but when you do it’s just too much distance. Just the frustration of having a faster car, and you can’t pass.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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