A day after evening the score against Brad Keselowski in the Nationwide Series 300 for repeated confrontations on the track, a more composed Denny Hamlin scored the biggest victory of his four-year career by capturing the Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday.
Hamlin took the lead for good from teammate Kyle Busch on lap 223 (of 267) and kept his No. 11 Toyota ahead of runner-up Jeff Burton to give the Joe Gibbs Racing team their fourth Sprint Cup victory at Homestead, but first since 2003.
Although Hamlin was overshadowed by Jimmie Johnson’s historic fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship, beating Johnson’s Chevy No. 48 in five of the 10 Chase races has the 2006 Rookie of the Year primed for a run at the title in 2010. Sun-Sentinel.com
Three top-threes since then helped Hamlin finish fifth, but his fourth victory of the season offered a sign of where he and the Joe Gibbs Racing team need to be to stop Johnson from winning a fifth consecutive championship.
“It’s tough to play the numbers games and what-if, but all I know is we’ve been competitive enough to run with those guys,” Hamlin said after leading three times for 71 laps.
“We’ve come a long way as a race team. Even though we’ve had some parts failures in the Chase, the driver still made a mistake which can’t happen next year. There are some things I need to do to get better.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Ford 400 at Homestead - Race Results
“I feel like through the season I’ve gotten better on figuring out what I need to make my race car good, (crew chief) Mike (Ford) is starting to figure out what we need to be good at racing. One thing we need to improve on is qualifying; we can’t keep coming from 38th like we did. This Chase has made us stronger.” USA Today
Burton’s Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick ran third, and Kurt Busch locked up fourth in the Chase standings with a fourth-place finish.
After Hamlin did a celebratory burnout on the frontstretch, and the championship stage was rolled into position, Johnson did an elaborate burnout of his own that started near the entrance to pit road and continued down the front straightaway.
After the smoke settled, Johnson embraced the enormity of what he had just accomplished.
“The truth of it is, to do something that’s never been done in this sport—to love the sport like I do and respect it like I do—and the greats: Petty, Earnhardt, Gordon ... to do something they’ve never done is so awesome. To win four championships in eight years, what this team has done ... I don’t know where to start. It’s unbelievable.” NASCAR
| 
|