Denny Hamlin knows all about leading laps at Richmond International Raceway. Now he knows about leading NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Saturday night, Hamlin led 251 of 400 laps on his way to winning the Air Guard 400.
Hamlin needed to weather raindrops, which placed the race under caution from laps 227-241, and a late-race challenge by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, who started 32nd and closed to Hamlin’s rear bumper with 30 laps to go.
But Hamlin had enough to hold him off for his series-high sixth victory of the season. That means with points being re-set for the final 10 races, Hamlin has 60 bonus points, 10 more than Jimmie Johnson (five wins), who will start the Chase second in the standings. USA Today
Busch rolled home second, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Marcos Ambrose.
It was a confident Hamlin who discussed his championship prospects in Victory Lane.
“It’s been an up-and-down year, but there’s been a lot of ups, and obviously we’re going to enter this Chase No. 1,” said Hamlin, who leads the points for the first time in his career. “It means a lot to this whole race team. A lot of people bashed this race team about ‘can’t finish this, and can’t finish that.’ But we’ve got the most wins, and hopefully that’s going to carry us for the 10 weeks in the Chase.
“At this point, I think we can win at all of ‘em.” NASCAR.com
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 4 20 Joey Logano Toyota 5 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota 6 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 7 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 8 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford 9 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 10 99 Carl Edwards Ford 11 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 12 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 13 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 14 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 15 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge 16 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 17 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 18 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 19 0 David Reutimann Toyota 20 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet 21 13 Casey Mears Toyota 22 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 23 6 David Ragan Ford 24 82 Scott Speed Toyota 25 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 26 98 Paul Menard Ford 27 19 Elliott Sadler Ford 28 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge 29 9 Kasey Kahne Ford 30 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 31 83 Mattias Ekstrom Toyota 32 16 Greg Biffle Ford 33 71 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 34 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 35 38 Travis Kvapil Ford 36 26 Jeff Green Ford 37 37 David Gilliland Ford 38 34 Tony Raines Ford 39 9 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 40 55 Terry Labonte Toyota 41 7 Kevin Conway * Toyota 42 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 43 132 Jason Leffler Toyota
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