Denny Hamlin took advantage of a fast pit stop near the halfway point and held off Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer to win the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas City.
Hamlin, who started 19th, led 99 of the race’s final 107 circuits to secure his fourth Nationwide victory of the season and ninth of his career.
The win was extra special for Hamlin, who enabled Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota to wrap up the manufacturer’s championship in the Nationwide Series on the strength of 18 wins this season.
“With restrictor plates on these cars, it’s hard for anyone to get a run on you,” Hamlin said of the spacer in his engine that all Toyota’s have been forced to use since late July.
“I had a heck of a time getting around the 64 (David Stremme), which was a lap down. It’s tough. I knew once I got in front of (Harvick), he was going to have to be significantly faster than I was.”
Hamlin also became the eighth driver to win in eight Nationwide races at 1 1/2-mile Kansas Speedway, and the first to lead the most laps.
“We didn’t have a good qualifying spot, but we definitely made the best of it,” Hamlin said. “Our car was not so great at the beginning, probably a mid top-10 car for the first 75 laps, then we had one adjustment and the car really took off.”
Bowyer pressured Hamlin briefly, but his runner-up run enabled him to extend his points lead to 196 over Carl Edwards, who ran fourth.
He was surrounded at the finish by Roush Fenway Racing teammates - David Ragan ran third and Matt Kenseth was fifth.
Rounding out the top-10 finishers behind the Roush Fenway trio was Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, Joey Logano and Kelly Bires.
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