After a long weekend at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the #20 Spectrum Controls / Rockwell Automation / JGR crew packed up the same car that they spent all night repairing last week and headed to the Dover International Speedway. Thursday’s practice was the first laps the Denny Hamlin ran on the track known as “The Monster Mile”.
 
Rain once again played havoc with the Busch Series Schedule. After practice on Thursday, steady rains moved into the area canceling all on track activity for Friday including Busch Series Qualifying. With the field based on Car Owner Points, Hamlin would start the race from the 10 ^th position.
 
Dover traditionally is a one groove track with the bottom being the fastest way around. Following the green flag, Hamlin learned that lesson the hard way as he got hung on the outside for the first 4 laps of the race dropping from 10 ^th to 22^nd before he could fall in line. Once in line, he started moving his way back to the front. Gaining four positions by the time the first caution flag flew on lap 20, he was ready to follow the leaders to pit road for some much needed changes to his machine. Reporting the car loose into the corner and tight off the corner, Crew Chief Cully Barraclough chose to change four tires with an air pressure adjustment and 1 round up on the track bar. The changes seemed to help as Hamlin climbed from the 19 ^th position up into the top 15.
 
As the green flag run continued, Hamlin’s car became tighter with each lap especially off the corner. With only a quarter of the race gone by, Barraclough called for Hamlin to return to pit road during a caution on lap 58 for tires and a wedge adjustment. As Hamlin dropped back to the 20 ^th position, he would begin his assault on the leaders again. Working his way up into the top 15 again, Hamlin commented that the car was no longer tight into the corners, but still continued to be tight off the corner.
 
During a caution on lap 95, Barraclough called for Hamlin to return to pit road for some more major changes in an effort to fix his tight condition. On this stop, the crew changed four tires and removed a spring rubber from the right rear of the car. Just past the halfway point, the race restarted and changes seemed to agree with Hamlin’s liking. He began picking off spots each lap.
Running 15^th , Hamlin attempted to drive under the 87 machine of Joe Nemechek. When he did, Nemechek pinched Hamlin down and took the air off his spoiler and caused the #20 machine to get loose. As Hamlin backed off the throttle to save the car, the #32 car driven by Ron Hornaday, who was filling in for Shane Hmeil, made contact with the left side of Hamlin’s machine. The fender damage, cut down the rear tire of Hamlin’s machine and he was forced to make a pit stop under green flag conditions for two new left side tires. Hamlin would fall to the 30 ^th position, three laps down from the leaders.
 
Hamlin used the final 82 laps to gain as many valuable spots as possible. By the end of the race, he finished 24 ^th, still three laps down to the leaders.
 
“This is the first time in a while I have felt like a rookie,” commented Hamlin following the race. “In practice and early in the race, I struggled getting a handle on this track. After halfway we had the car really good and were headed to the front. I think we could have finished in the top-ten if it was not for that tire problem. ”