Hamlin Dominant in Homestead Victory

Denny Hamlin won the Dixie Vodka 400 from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday night.

The race was delayed numerous times at the beginning of the event due to lightning in the area.  But as the race went through multiple startups, Hamlin was always at the front.

Hamlin dominated on Sunday, and won both stages after starting on the pole on his way to his third victory of the season.  It was redemption for Hamlin, who was dominant in November’s season finale at Homestead until a bad pit call cost him a chance at the title. 

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Hamlin said his team brought the same setup as last year’s Cup Series finale.

“We made our car really good,” Hamlin said.  “This is the…setup kind of based off what we had there in the fall here last year going for the Championship.”

Hamlin lost the lead to Chase Elliott during the final set of green-flag pit stops, but he was able to use lapped traffic to get back around Elliott and hold him off.

Hamlin said he was worried the pit cycle would work into Elliott’s hands.

“Seems like the end of these races seems to be Chase’s…best suit,” Hamlin said.  “I knew if I was just patient and run the pace that I wanted and the pace I was comfortable with, we were going to be hard to beat in the long run.”

Elliott had trouble getting through lapped traffic while leading in the closing laps, and he was held up by Joey Logano when Hamlin took the lead for the final time.  After running in Hamlin’s tire tracks for the final laps, Elliott got into the wall, which allowed Hamlin to pull ahead at the end.

Elliott said the lapped traffic is what cost him a trip to victory lane.

“Just need to get through lapped traffic better, but I thought our Hooters Camaro was plenty good enough to win,” Elliott said.  “Keep putting ourselves in good position, do a little better job getting through lapped traffic, and maybe we have another sticker.”

“We’ll just try to put ourselves in more spots to win and see where it goes from there.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Chase Elliott

3. Ryan Blaney

4. Tyler Reddick

5. Aric Almirola

6. Kyle Busch

7. Austin Dillon

8. Christopher Bell

9. William Byron

10. Brad Keselowski

11. Clint Bowyer

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Bubba Wallace

14. Matt DiBenedetto

15. Michael McDowell

16. Jimmie Johnson

17. Kurt Busch

18. Alex Bowman

19. John Hunter Nemechek

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

21. Erik Jones

22. Cole Custer

23. Chris Buescher

24. Ryan Preece

25. Matt Kenseth

26. Kevin Harvick

27. Joey Logano

28. Ty Dillon

29. Corey LaJoie

30. Ryan Newman

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Brennan Poole

33. Quin Houff

34. Timmy Hill

35. BJ McLeod

36. Joey Gase

37. Josh Bilicki

38. JJ Yeley

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