Hamlin Scores 13^th Place Finish on Friday the 13th

Coming off a career best finish at Darlington Raceway and heading back to his hometown, Denny Hamlin and the #20 Team could not wait to unload at Richmond International Raceway for the Funai 250. Hamlin grew up 15 miles south of RIR in Chesterfield, VA. With the hometown support, Hamlin and the team were excited to be returning to short track racing.
 
Friday was a long day as the teams practiced, qualified and raced in the same day. The day started off busy as Hamlin brushed the wall in practice. But the #20 team fix the Rockwell Automation Chevrolet and returned him to the track. Complaining of being tight in practice, the car was way too loose in qualifying and he was only able to muster the 31 ^st starting position.
 
Coming from the back, Hamlin knew the car was good and with a little patience a top ten finish was attainable. As he settled in for the early part of the race, he reported the car was tight and it slowed his work to the front. After 30 laps, he had only moved up 4 positions to 27 ^th . Needing to make the car better, Crew Chief Cully Barraclough called for Hamlin to pit during a caution period on lap 32. Returning to the track in the 23 ^rd position, Hamlin began is assault on the front again.
 
As the race restarted, Hamlin’s car was definitely better. Working his way into the top 15 during the next 25 laps, Hamlin continued to work his way to the front and was running 12 ^th on lap 78. While most of the leaders chose to pit, Hamlin stayed out to maintain track position. Running as high as third, Hamlin’s car started to become loose as the tires went away. Pitting on lap 110, Hamlin was running in the 10 ^th position, one of only 15 cars on the lead lap.
 
The next 50 laps saw Hamlin struggle with the handling of the race car. The #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet went from loose in the corner to tight in the center and tight off the corner. On lap 175, after racing several laps side by side with the 11 car of Paul Menard, the 11 car squeezed the 20 car down on the bottom line which caused it to get loose and forced Hamlin to chase it up the track. As he did contact with the 11 car was made and flattened the right side of the car. During the caution period, Menard drove up to the 20 car and flatten the front left of the 20 car and cut down the left front tire.
Hamlin would have to make several stops to repair the damage and try to get the handling back on his car. Dropping all the way back to 26 ^th position, Hamlin would spend the remaining 75 laps avoiding wrecks and grabbing positions where he could. The end result would be a 13 ^th place finish on the same lap as the leader.
 
“I wish we had a better car tonight,” commented Hamlin following the race. “We just never seemed to get the handle on it. Cully made some great calls and got us the track position that I gave up with my qualifying effort. We were headed for a top ten finish until the contact with the 11 car that killed our car.  Paul & I had been racing side by side for three or four laps, but on the last one, he pinched me down and just took the air off my spoiler and got us loose. We are going to use the weekend off to work on some things to get better and get after it again in Charlotte.”