Hamlin Scores Top-10 Finish at IRP

When Denny Hamlin made his inaugural Truck Series debut one year ago at IRP, he was simply working on finishing the race. Little did he know that his top-ten finish in that first race would spring board his career and land him in the #20 Rockwell Automation / JGR Chevrolet for the 2005 Busch Series Season. Having experience on the tough half mile bull ring, Hamlin was ready to for some Saturday night short track racing.
 
With the challenge of setting the car up during the day, qualifying in the late afternoon and racing during the evening, the team was challenged with finding the car’s handle. Hamlin was fast showing 3 ^rd and 7^th during the two practice sessions. The car was a little tight during qualifying but Hamlin was able to wrestle the car around the track and score the seventh starting position.
 
As the sun set, the green flag dropped and the Kroger 200 began. After gaining a couple positions early, Hamlin began to lose positions. After falling back to tenth, he called in that the car was extremely tight and needed major changes during the first stop. With a long green flag run, Hamlin had to wait until lap 52 when the first caution of the night would fall for rain. After following the leaders to pit road, Crew Chief Cully Barraclough called for major changes on the #20 machine. A loose tire during the pit stop forced a slow stop and Hamlin returned to the track in the 13 ^th position. The rain would become heavier and NASCAR would be forced to red flag the race and wait for the showers to move out of the area.
 
After an hour and a half delay, the red flag was removed and the engines were restarted. Hamlin was aggressive on the restart, picking up several positions in the first couple laps. Reporting that the car was still way too tight, he fought for every position until the next caution on lap 102. After another pit stop, this one with another round of major changes, Hamlin restarted in the 9 ^th position.
 
Having one of the fastest cars on the track, Hamlin began picking up positions and working his way to the front. By lap 142, he worked his way into the top five for the first time all night. As he continued to gain on the leaders, he was eventually overtaken by the #14 car of David Stremme. With only 40 laps to go, the remainder of the race was slowed with caution flags. Each time Hamlin would clear the lapped traffic and begin to hunt down the leaders, another caution would fly and reset the field. By the time the race ended, Hamlin was running in the sixth position on the same lap at the leader.
 
“This was a really good car tonight,” commented Hamlin following the race. “We just put ourselves behind in the track position game at the beginning. Early on in the race, we were way too tight. Our first pit stop didn’t help our cause either. But Cully made some good calls on the car, the team gave me a great second stop and we were able to recover. We were definitely better than three or four cars ahead of us, we just ran o “This was a really good car tonight,” commented Hamlin following the race. “We just put ourselves behind in the track position game at the beginning. Early on in the race, we were way too tight. Our first pit stop didn’t help our cause either. But Cully made some good calls on the car, the team gave me a great second stop and we were able to recover. We were definitely better than three or four cars ahead of us, we just ran out of laps to catch them.”