BRISTOL, Tenn. — It wasn’t the old Bristol, but it was definitely a better Bristol.
Denny Hamlin saved his best effort for the stretch run in Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and his persistence paid off with the No. 11 team’s third win of the season in 24 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
“It’s Bristol — I don’t know what to say, man,” Hamlin said as he crossed the finish line. “I’m so damn happy.”
Kasey Kahne spoiled Denny Hamlin’s heroic drive through the field and held on to win Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, all but securing a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with his second victory of the season.
Kahne led the final 66 laps, as fast-closing Hamlin ran out of time after starting deep in the field on a restart on Lap 240. Hamlin had dominated the race, but a miscommunication on pit strategy cost him track position in the late going, and Hamlin ran out of time after securing the runner-up spot.
Clint Bowyer ran third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman completed the top 10.
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In winning Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Stewart side-drafted and separated Kenseth and Biffle, who had surged into the lead during a two-lap run to the finish, then pulled away for his fourth win in the last eight July races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
As Stewart approached the checkered flag for his third win of the season and the 47th of his career, a massive wreck in Turn 4 skewed the finishing order behind him. Stewart’s 47th victory broke a tie with Hall of Famer Buck Baker for 14th all-time.
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he Great Pumpkin arrived early, and Kurt Busch left Daytona International Speedway with something more than peanuts after winning Friday night’s Subway Jalapeno 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race in a battered No. 1 Chevrolet that looked like a refuge from Halloween.
[Gallery not found]With a strong push from defending series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Busch took the checkered flag in a wild race that ended with Austin Dillon wrecking in the tri-oval as Busch crossed the finish line.
Stenhouse came home second, followed by Michael Annett, who was pushing Dillon during a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race one lap beyond its scheduled distance of 100 laps.
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Clint Bowyer’s victory in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma was a surprise to the driver who chased him for more than 20 laps — Kurt Busch — but in retrospect, history may have been on Bowyer’s side.
[Gallery not found]“I just kept thinking, ‘He’s a dirt Late Model racer from the Midwest — there’s no way he can be able to run the road course,’ but he did,” said Busch, who finished third despite hitting a tire barrier in Turn 11 at the 1.99-mile track and breaking the panhard bar on his No. 51 Chevrolet.
With Busch’s car damaged and vulnerable to a pass during a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the event two laps beyond its scheduled 110 laps, Bowyer held off charging Tony Stewart to claim his first victory of the season and the sixth of his career.
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Nelson Piquet Jr. enjoyed a lot of firsts during the NASCAR Nationwide series Sargento 200 race weekend at Road America.
A regular in the NASCAR Camping World Truck series, Piquet Jr. used his first career pole and laps led to earn his very first NASCAR national series win on the Wisconsin road course. In his third career NASCAR Nationwide start, the native of Brazil drove a flawless final 17 laps with the lead, earning a 2.258-second victory over runner-up Michael McDowell. He led a race-high 19 laps and also becomes the first Brazilian to win a NASCAR national series race.
“It’s difficult to put into words what I’m feeling,” Piquet Jr. said. “I think we had a great week since the first practice. I learned the track quite quickly and the team helped me out quite a bit.”
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DOVER, Del. — The Hendrick Motorsports juggernaut is back — with a vengeance.
[Gallery not found]Driving away from Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth after a restart with 31 laps left in Sunday’s FedEx 400 at Dover International Speedway, Jimmie Johnson made short work of his NASCAR Sprint Cup rivals.
Johnson, who led 289 of the 400 laps, picked up his second victory of the season (in addition to a win in the May 19 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race) and his second victory in the last three points races. Hendrick drivers have now won four straight races, including the All-Star event.
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Joey Logano smashed the glass slipper Saturday at Dover International Speedway.
[Gallery not found]Charging forward from the seventh position after a restart on Lap 158 of 200, Logano overtook pole-sitter Ryan Truex for the lead on Lap 195 to win the 5-Hour Energy 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.
In winning his fourth Nationwide race in 10 starts this season and the 13th of his career, Logano finished 1.526 seconds ahead of Truex, who was 11 days removed from an emergency appendectomy.
When Logano came to the pits on Lap 152 after spinning Tim Bainey Jr. to cause the sixth and final caution on Lap 151 (an incident Logano attributed to a rookie not giving the leader enough room), Truex inherited the lead and appeared headed for a fairy tale finish until Logano caught him with five laps left.
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Third generation racer Corey LaJoie captured his much-anticipated first NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory Saturday night in the NASCAR Hall of Fame 150 at historic Bowman Gray Stadium.
LaJoie, from Concord, N.C., powered the No. 07 Thermal Control Products/Sims Metal Ford to the lead on the event’s first lap, but pole-sitter Kyle Larson wrestled it away the next circuit and LaJoie ran second through the first quarter of the race. The 20-year-old regained the lead on Lap 37 and held on through the balance of the event that included eight more restarts for his first trip to Victory Lane.
“To put your name on the same page as Richard Petty or Tim Flock is really incredible,” LaJoie said of joining the legendary Bowman Gray winners list. “I have a long, long, long way to go to catch up to the prestige of those guys. I’m just happy to get in Victory Lane once to break that barrier.”
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DOVER, Del. — Let it rain!
[Gallery not found]At a racetrack where a casino is an integral part of the complex, Todd Bodine gambled and won big.
Despite spinning early in Friday’s rain-shortened Lucas Oil 200, Bodine remained on the lead leap, and with a contrarian pit strategy, he worked his way into the lead. When rain forced NASCAR to call the race after 147 laps, Bodine was the winner, breaking a drought of 37 races dating to 2010.
The two-time series champion won for the 22nd time in his career after fending off an assault from Parker Kligerman, the race runner-up. Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick, who dominated the first half of the race, was third when NASCAR called the event after a second stoppage for rain.
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