Hamlin Holds off Elliott at Las Vegas

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Denny Hamlin won the South Point 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday night to lock himself into the next round of the Playoffs.

Hamlin was strong throughout the race and ran up front for most of the night.  After a different strategy call by the Hendrick Motorsports drivers towards the end of stage 2, Hamlin was able to take command and pick up his second win of the season.

Hamlin said he was glad to get to victory lane in Las Vegas after running well there the last few races at the track.

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“It feels so good to win at Vegas,” Hamlin said.  “Last couple times I’ve been so close and just didn’t have the right breaks.”

The victory locked Hamlin into the third round of the Playoffs, which will allow him to avoid the stress of fighting for a Playoff spot at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval.

Hamlin said he is ready to fight for victories the next two weeks without the added stress of racing for his Playoff future.

“So happy I don’t have to worry about the next two weeks,” Hamlin said.  “I’m going to work just as hard each and every week to win.”

Chase Elliott was the lone Hendrick driver who was able to overcome the pit strategy call.  He was able to run Hamlin down over the final green flag run, but he ran out of time and was never able to challenge Hamlin for the lead.

Elliott said the race played out more in his favor than for his teammates.

“Circumstances went our way,” Elliott said.  “We were able to get back on the lead lap when that cycle of stops got weird there in the middle.  We got back on the lead and didn’t need to wave or get the lucky dog.”

“We were really close, just not close enough; Denny did a good job controlling the gap to me.  Excited for the next two, it’s going to be wild.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Chase Elliott

3. Kyle Busch

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Brad Keselowski

8. Kurt Busch

9. Kevin Harvick

10. Kyle Larson

11. Joey Logano

12. Matt DiBenedetto

13. Austin Dillon

14. Chase Briscoe

15. Daniel Suarez

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. William Byron

19. Aric Almirola

20. Ryan Newman

21. Michael McDowell

22. Alex Bowman

23. Ross Chastain

24. Christopher Bell

25. Chris Buescher

26. Erik Jones

27. Anthony Alfredo

28. Ryan Preece

29. Cole Custer

30. Corey LaJoie

31. Cody Ware

32. Justin Haley

33. BJ McLeod

34. Quin Houff

35. Garrett Smithley

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Joey Gase

38. JJ Yeley

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Larson Wins, Elliott and Harvick Clash in Playoff Cutoff at Bristol

Kyle Larson won the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race from Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Larson had a strong car throughout the race, but lost the lead on a late restart to his teammate Chase Elliott.  Larson hung behind in third place while Elliott and Kevin Harvick fought for the lead over the final 50 laps.

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Harvick and Elliott made slight contact while they navigated lapped traffic, and the contact cut down the left-rear tire on Elliott’s Chevrolet.  After he pitted, Elliott stayed ahead of Harvick in the preferred line which allowed Larson to take the lead and get to victory lane.

Larson said he was able to get around Harvick after he used up his tires trying to get around Elliott.

“Harvick had to move around and use his tires up,” Larson said. “I got a big run and decided to pull the trigger and slide him and squeeze him a little bit.”

Following the race, Harvick and Elliott made contact coming to pit road and then the two exchanged words.

Harvick said he just tried to race Elliott hard for the lead and was angry with how Elliott decided to handle the situation.

“I just told him…it was kind a chicken-shit move that he did that at the end,” Harvick said.  “We’re racing for the freaking win at Bristol, we’re three-wide in the middle and he throws a temper tantrum.”

“I was just trying to get the lead and race him hard.  Then he pulls up in front of me and just sits there until I lose the lead.”

Elliott said he felt Harvick ran him up the track to force the contact, and Elliott was just trying to defend himself.

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

“It’s something he does all the time,” Elliott said.  “He runs into your left side constantly at other tracks.  At some point you’ve got to draw the line.”

“I don’t care who he is or how long he’s been doing it, I’m going to stand up for myself and my team.  I just ran my line, and happy for Kyle; happy for Team Hendrick, wish I could have got our Hooters Chevrolet into victory lane.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Larson

2. Kevin Harvick

3. William Byron

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Alex Bowman

6. Brad Keselowski

7. Martin Truex Jr.

8. Erik Jones

9. Denny Hamlin

10. Matt DiBenedetto

11. Joey Logano

12. Tyler Reddick

13. Chase Briscoe

14. Ross Chastain

15. Austin Dillon

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Ryan Preece

18. Aric Almirola

19. Kurt Busch

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

21. Kyle Busch

22. Daniel Suarez

23. Chris Buescher

24. Michael McDowell

25. Chase Elliott

26. Corey LaJoie

27. JJ Yeley

28. Cole Custer

29. Christopher Bell

30. Garrett Smithley

31. Josh Bilicki

32. David Starr

33. James Davison

34. Quin Houff

35. Anthony Alfredo

36. Justin Haley

37. BJ McLeod

38. Ryan Newman

Logan Riely/Getty Images

Truex Holds off Hamlin to Win at Richmond

Martin Truex Jr. won the Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond Raceway on Saturday night to lock himself into the next round of the Playoffs.

Truex overtook his teammate Denny Hamlin during the final pit cycle and was ahead by over eight seconds with 50 laps to go.  After Truex’s tires began to wear out, Hamlin was able to cut the lead down to just two seconds but ran out of laps at the end of the race.

Truex started the race on the front row, but NASCAR penalized him for jumping the start.  The penalty put Truex in a hole early in the race, but he said he knew his car was fast enough to overcome the early penalty.

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“That was frustrating,” Truex said.  “It felt pretty good those first couple laps; I knew we’d have a good enough car to overcome it.”

The victory was Truex’s first since he won at Darlington in May, and Truex said the Joe Gibbs Racing cars are picking up at the right time.

“It’s been awhile,” Truex said.  “We talked last week about how much speed we’ve had in these things.  Very happy to get to do this and go to Bristol without any worries next week.”

Hamlin began the Playoffs last week with a victory, and he followed it up at Richmond with a strong run.

Hamlin said he was hoping to go back-to-back coming into the weekend.

“Just needed a couple more laps,” Hamlin said.  “I really wish we got two in a row…a great day for our team.  It’s go-time now.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Christopher Bell

4. Chase Elliott

5. Joey Logano

6. Kyle Larson

7. Ross Chastain

8. Kevin Harvick

9. Kyle Busch

10. Ryan Blaney

11. Austin Dillon

12. Alex Bowman

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Aric Almirola

15. Tyler Reddick

16. Chase Briscoe

17. Daniel Suarez

18. Matt DiBenedetto

19. William Byron

20. Ryan Newman

21. Erik Jones

22. Cole Custer

23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

24. Chris Buescher

25. Ryan Preece

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Justin Haley

28. Michael McDowell

29. Corey LaJoie

30. BJ McLeod

31. Garrett Smithley

32. Bubba Wallace

33. Joey Gase

34. JJ Yeley

35. Quin Houff

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Kurt Busch

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Hamlin Breaks Winless Streak at Darlington in Playoff Opener

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Denny Hamlin won the Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway on Sunday night to pick up his first victory of the season.

Hamlin came into the opening race of NASCAR’s Playoffs without a win on the season, but finished second in the regular season standings.  Hamlin ran up front for most of the evening, but he was challenged by Kyle Larson throughout the second and third stages.

Hamlin was able to use pit strategy and a well-timed caution flag to take the lead in the third stage and regain control of the race.  Over the final run, Hamlin had to hold off challenges from Larson and Ross Chastain.

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Hamlin said he was glad to return to victory lane at his favorite racetrack.

“I love this racetrack,” Hamlin said.  “Luckily the caution came when it did and the strategy worked out great with the team.”

Hamlin said the finish between he and Larson summed up their regular-season battle for the regular season points lead.

“It’s been kind of back-and-forth [with] me and him most of the year, he’s just been a little bit faster on these types of racetracks,” Hamlin said.  “It was a matter of time; we can’t just keep leading inside 10 laps to go every week and not get a win.”

Larson tried his best to get by Hamlin on the final lap and drove his car deep into the corner.  He was able to get to Hamlin’s bumper, but slammed the wall and couldn’t complete the pass coming out of Turn 4.

Larson said his best chance was a “video game” move coming to the checkered flag.

“We got to the white flag and I kind of thought that I hadn’t been able to gain on him, might as well try something,” Larson said.  “Honestly got to his bumper too quick.  I was hoping he would run that diamond to try and be safe and I could squirt to his outside.”

“It’s good to get a good start, I think everybody’s nervous getting ready for the final ten.  Good to get a good first weekend and build some momentum and some confidence within the team.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Kyle Larson

3. Ross Chastain

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Kevin Harvick

6. Kurt Busch

7. Brad Keselowski

8. Joey Logano

9. Chris Buescher

10. Austin Dillon

11. Cole Custer

12. Ryan Preece

13. Daniel Suarez

14. Ryan Newman

15. Corey LaJoie

16. Aric Almirola

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Tyler Reddick

19. Chase Briscoe

20. Christopher Bell

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Ryan Blaney

23. Matt DiBenedetto

24. Anthony Alfredo

25. Justin Haley

26. Alex Bowman

27. BJ McLeod

28. Josh Bilicki

29. Joey Gase

30. Quin Houff

31. Chase Elliott

32. Erik Jones

33. Cody Ware

34. William Byron

35. Kyle Busch

36. James Davison

37. Michael McDowell

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Blaney Wins at Daytona, Reddick Takes Final Playoff Spot Over Dillon

Ryan Blaney won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night in NASCAR’s regular season finale.

Blaney took the lead on the final restart, and was able to hold off the field as a wreck took out most of the leaders heading into the final corner.  Blaney was ahead of Chris Buescher as the caution flag flew, and he was able to head to victory lane for the second-consecutive weekend.

Blaney said he had to use his superspeedway experience to choose the right line while in the lead.

Logan Riely/Getty Images

“You never know how the end of these are going to turn out,” Blaney said.  “Down the back you just don’t know what lane is going to get a bigger run.”

Blaney said the push from Corey LaJoie on the restart is what helped him get to victory lane.

“The biggest thing is just getting the push,” Blaney said.  “It really all started with [LaJoie] giving me a good push and getting me out front.”

With only one spot open for the Playoffs heading into the regular-season finale, Buescher was in position late to get the victory and lock himself into the Playoffs.

Buescher came up one spot short after restarting as the leader heading in overtime, and said he will be thinking about his final restart.

“I’m sure I’ll play it back and find something else different,” Buescher said.  “Top line wasn’t organized at the start and bottom was; they were digging.  Difficult ending to a day…to miss that Playoff spot by one spot.”

Tyler Reddick came into the race in the final Playoff spot, but his chances seemed to diminish throughout the race as his teammate Austin Dillon picked up points in the first two stages before Reddick was involved in a big accident towards the end of the race.

Reddick’s team got the car back out on track as multiple winless drivers battled for the win in the closing laps.  Reddick was able to sneak through the last-lap accident that collected Dillon and locked himself into the final Playoff spot.

Reddick said it was a stressful race with everything that went wrong.

“Almost felt helpless there, but we didn’t give up and we fought through it,” Reddick said.  “I knew it was about 14 points I had on that green-white-checkered.  It was just go hard and try to stay up tight to the cars ahead of me and keep the nose out of clean air.”

Dillon said his team fought hard with a fast car before their luck ran out at the end of the race to end their Playoff push.

“We fought our butts off in the stages; made some good moves to get stages points,” Dillon said.  “We fought hard.  The car was fast…unfortunate that we’re not in the Playoffs.  We gave it all we could and fought to the very end.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ryan Blaney

2. Chris Buescher

3. Bubba Wallace

4. Ryan Newman

5. Ryan Preece

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Justin Haley

8. Alex Bowman

9. Chase Elliott

10. BJ McLeod

11. Josh Bilicki

12. Erik Jones

13. Kurt Busch

14. Denny Hamlin

15. Aric Almirola

16. Kevin Harvick

17. Corey LaJoie

18. Austin Dillon

19. Ross Chastain

20. Daniel Suarez

21. Kyle Larson

22. Chase Briscoe

23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

24. Joey Logano

25. Cole Custer

26. Matt DiBenedetto

27. Anthony Alfredo

28. David Starr

29. Cody Ware

30. Martin Truex Jr.

31. Garrett Smithley

32. Joey Gase

33. Christopher Bell

34. Brad Keselowski

35. Kyle Busch

36. Kaz Grala

37. Landon Cassill

38. William Byron

39. Quin Houff

40. Michael McDowell

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Blaney Holds off Byron to Win at Michigan

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Ryan Blaney won the FireKeepers Casino 400 from Michigan International Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Blaney chose the bottom lane ahead of the final restart, and a big push from Kyle Busch got him ahead of William Byron coming out of Turn 2.  Blaney was able to hold off the hard-charging Hendrick Motorsports duo of Byron and Kyle Larson to pick up his second victory of the season.

Blaney started toward the front of the field on Sunday, but fell back at the drop of the green flag after he struggled with his car’s handling.

Logan Riely/Getty Images

Blaney said his team worked on the car all day to get it ready for the finish.

“We weren’t great to start the day off,” Blaney said.  “Kept working and working and got a lot better.”

Blaney said the race came down to the final restart where a push from Busch got him to the lead.

“Picked a good lane on the restart there and was able to get the push we needed,” Blaney said.  “Michigan’s a matter of…holding it wide open and pretty much playing the air game.  We got a great push by the 18 [of Busch] on the restart and was able to get clear.”

Byron finished second on Sunday after he couldn’t overcome NASCAR’s 550 horsepower package that keeps racing close but sometimes makes it difficult to pass.

Byron said he was a victim of the superspeedway-like racing that left him without a true partner on the restart.

“Needed [Denny Hamlin] to stay with us,” Byron said.  “I gave up the lead trying to protect the top and just didn’t have the loyalty there to kind of push me into the lead.”

“It was kind of like a speedway race.  I was trying to back up to [Larson] off of four to get a run with about two laps to go.  Unfortunately, he ran the bottom so he didn’t have any momentum to push me.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ryan Blaney

2. William Byron

3. Kyle Larson

4. Kurt Busch

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Matt DiBenedetto

7. Kyle Busch

8. Chase Elliott

9. Brad Keselowski

10. Martin Truex Jr.

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Christopher Bell

14. Kevin Harvick

15. Chris Buescher

16. Alex Bowman

17. Aric Almirola

18. Erik Jones

19. Bubba Wallace

20. Michael McDowell

21. Ryan Preece

22. Daniel Suarez

23. Cole Custer

24. Ryan Newman

25. Justin Haley

26. Josh Berry

27. Cody Ware

28. BJ McLeod

29. Tyler Reddick

30. Quin Houff

31. Josh Bilicki

32. Garrett Smithley

33. Joey Logano

34. Anthony Alfredo

35. Ross Chastain

36. Austin Dillon

37. Joey Gase

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Larson Holds off Elliott at Watkins Glen

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kyle Larson won the Go Bowling at the Glen from Watkins Glen International on Sunday afternoon to pick up his fifth victory of the season.

In the first race out of NASCAR’s Olympic break, Larson ran up front and challenged for the lead most of the day.  Larson was able to get around Martin Truex Jr. for the lead under the final round of pit stops, and he pulled out to a lead that his teammate Chase Elliott could not overcome.

Larson said his team put a good car together for the weekend.

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

“Another amazing car,” Larson said.  “I could tell from about lap three after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.”

With Elliott closing in on Larson in the closing laps, Larson ran into a pack of slower cars that allowed Elliott to cut seconds off the lead.

Larson said he was sure Elliott would catch him while stuck in traffic.

“Chase was already chasing me pretty quick, even with me being on open track,” Larson said.  “When I caught those four cars…thought I’d look in my mirror and the 9 would be right on me.  Think we had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that.”

Elliott was forced to start at the back of the field because of a pre-race penalty, but he was able to race his way up to second place. 

NASCAR’s winningest-active road course racer drove his way through the field, but a late mistake cost him what could have been his seventh-career road course victory.

Elliott made an unscheduled stop after flat-spotting his tires, and it was too much to overcome in such a short race.

Elliott said he was proud of his team’s effort throughout the day.

“I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately,” Elliott said.  “Super proud of our team, kind of an uphill battle all day.  Everybody was super prepared coming into today, and our NAPA team just did a good job of fighting.”

“Try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time, maybe it’ll work out.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Larson

2. Chase Elliott

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Kyle Busch

5. Denny Hamlin

6. William Byron

7. Christopher Bell

8. Kevin Harvick

9. Chase Briscoe

10. Tyler Reddick

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Ross Chastain

13. Kurt Busch

14. Ryan Blaney

15. Austin Dillon

16. Aric Almirola

17. Chris Buescher

18. Cole Custer

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

20. Alex Bowman

21. Michael McDowell

22. Joey Logano

23. Bubba Wallace

24. Corey LaJoie

25. Ryan Newman

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Erik Jones

28. Ryan Preece

29. Justin Haley

30. Kyle Tilley

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Quin Houff

33. Josh Bilicki

34. RC Enerson

35. Brad Keselowski

36. Garrett Smithley

37. James Davison

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images