Denny Hamlin’s last win came at Bristol Motor Speedway last fall.
He repeated that at Bristol Sunday, but it was far from easy.
Hamlin beat his teammate Martin Truex Jr. in a race that saw a record number of lead changes, 54 besting the previous record for all NASCAR short tracks of 40. All while managing his tires, something he said he has plenty of experience with.
“That’s what I grew up here doing in the short tracks in the Mid Atlantic, South Boston, Martinsville,” Hamlin said. “Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances.
Obviously the veteran in Martin, he knew how to do it as well. We just had a great car, great team. The pit crew just did a phenomenal job all day. Can’t say enough about them.”
It was a race that was as old school as NASCAR has seen in ages with drivers and teams forced to factor in tire strategy for the first time in many, many years. Tire failures affected several contenders early on including Tyler Reddick who had stayed out on lap 33 while the rest of the lead group pitted, and Kyle Busch who spun with a right rear flat tire on lap 125.
Tires were lasting about 30-40 laps before cars began slipping and falling back. All while drivers tried to hang on until the next round of pit stops and hoping they were not the caution.
And while most teams were frantically trying to adjust their setups, and tire strategies, the Joe Gibbs Racing teams quicky figured it out. They capitalized and the race for the win was among the four JGR cars until lap 435 when Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs slowed with tire issues. Bell in fact lost a tire on lap 442 and had to pit under green. Gibbs then had a tire go flat on lap 446 and had to pit, also under green.
The final stops of the day came under green as drivers ran their cars until tires started going flat forcing them to pit, with Hamlin and Truex the rare exceptions. After a chaotic sequence Hamlin reemerged with the lead followed by Truex with 16 laps to go.
Truex battled with his teammate as they both tried to navigate through heavy lapped traffic. In the end Hamlin came across the line 1.083 seconds ahead of Truex.
“I gave it a hell of an effort,” Truex said. “Congrats to them. Man, what a job by everybody at the JGR, TRD. Our Toyotas are working really well right now. Had a lot of fun today. Wish we could have come up one spot. Short on second. Good run for us. It’s been a great season for us.”
Brad Keselowski, Alex bowman and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
In a continuation of the old school narrative those five were the only cars on the lead lap at the end, the first time that’s happened since Dover in 2004.
Johns Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, and Chase Elliott were sixth through eighth. And the final two JGR cars came back from flat tires to finish in the top 10 with Ty Gibbs, who swept the stages, ninth and Christoper Bell 10th.
It was another dominate show for the Gibbs teams as Hamlin led the most laps on the day, 163, Gibbs the second most, 137 followed by Truex with 54 and Bell with 29.
Among those also suffering tire blowouts were polesitter Ryan Blaney who finished 16th two laps down, Josh Berry who ran among the top five much of the day, and Zane Smith who caught enough damage from a blown tire that he became the only car forced to retire from the race.
During the middle part of the race NASCAR allowed teams to get another set of Goodyear tires as many teams scrambled to try and not end up with a blown tire on the track. Many used scuffed tires, those that only had one or two laps on them, and expressed concern they would run out with only nine sets.
For its part, Goodyear seemed to be at a loss to explain exactly what happened, only that they expected to track to take rubber, and it didn’t. They brought the same tire compound used in the fall race which had fewer problems. With a record number of lead changes, however, and some of the best old school style of racing fans were treated to a race that had elements not seen in well over a decade, and few seemed to mind one bit.
Nor did most of the drivers.
“It was interesting,” third place finisher Keselowski said “Like a little short track race. You go to any of these local short tracks, that’s how you have to race. Have take care of your stuff.
It’s refreshing. It’s different. I like that, that it takes something different every week. That’s what makes Cup so hard. You go in every week, some weeks you drive ’em till you burn ’em down, this week you got to take care of ’em.”
NASCAR heads to Texas and the Circuit of the Americas for the first road course race of the season next Sunday. Tyler Reddick is the defending winner.
RACE RESULTS
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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