With major shakeups in the Busch Series Schedule, the Busch Series headed out west for a tour that includes California, Mexico City and Las Vegas during the next three weekends. After a successful test at California, the team was ready to put their disappointment from Daytona behind them.

With the Busch Series new schedule, the teams saw a practice day on Friday with qualifying scheduled for Saturday morning and the race Saturday afternoon. During qualifying, Denny Hamlin drove his #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet down in the turn one & two when he felt the car wobble and then break loose spinning out and making minor contact with the outside wall. The #20 team worked furiously to repair the damage and have the car ready to line up in the 42^nd starting position for the race.

“It was amazing how quick the car broke loose,” commented Hamlin after his run. “Going into the corner felt really good but then it bottomed out and shot me up the race track. I thought I had it saved but the back end just came around. The damage doesn’t look too bad, so we should not have to go to a backup car.”

The #20 Team worked feverishly to get the car back into shape. By the time the race was ready to start it was hard to tell the car was even involved in an accident. Coming from the 42^nd starting position, Hamlin would quickly go on the move. During the first lap, he picked up 10 positions and continued his assault to the front. By lap 20, the tires were well worn in and the field had strung itself out. Hamlin comfortably running in the 24^th position radioed in that the car was loose all around the race track. When the first caution flag flew on lap 29, Hamlin followed the leaders to pit road for four tires, fuel and a major trackbar adjustment.

Team Spectrum turned in a 13 second pit stop that picked up 8 positions in the pits and returned Hamlin in the 16^th position. Hamlin would maintain the 16^th position until his next pit stop just 20 laps later. With the car still loose, Crew Chief Trip Bruce called for a two tire stop that returned the car to the track in the 7^th position. As most of the leaders took four tires, Hamlin held his position for 10 laps but soon his lap times began to fall off and he lost some positions to the leaders.

“I was surprised to see all the leaders take four tires,” commented Bruce following the race. “We had just stopped twenty laps earlier and still had over 65% of the race to go. With the new softer compounds, I figured teams would err on the side of caution and save a set for the end.”

Settled into the 21^st position and complaining of no grip, Hamlin waited for the next caution to get service on his car. On lap 78, he would follow the leaders down pit road for tires and service. After another stellar stop, Hamlin returned to the track in the 16^th position. As he settled in for a long run, he called in that the motor felt a little flat on the straight-aways. Engine tuner Dan Bajek called for Hamlin to change ignition boxes. When that did not fix the problem, he called for RPM & Water Temp readings. Reporting that the Water was at 180 (normal is 210-220) and RPM was 8,000 (normal is 9,000), the team was worried the engine was about to expire. When the final pit stop of the day came at lap 110, the team changed four tires and added tape to the front grill to try heat the motor more. The adjustments helped a little and Hamlin was able to claw his way to 18^th from the 25^th position, but that is where he would finish the race on the same lap as the leaders.

“This is the second week in a row that we have dominated practice day and just not preformed well on race day,” said Hamlin following the race. “I put us a little behind because of qualifying, and this is a track where you want to start up front and stay up front. We are going to be testing a lot the next couple weeks and I am sure qualifying is one thing that we are going to work on.”