Late Spin cost Hamlin at Top-Ten finish at Bristol

After moving back into the second position in the NASCAR Busch Series Points Standings, Denny Hamlin and the #20 Rockwell Automation Racing team headed to Bristol Motor Speedway for some Friday night short track racing.  Bristol is a track that is known to be tough to past and has a history of forcing drivers to use the bumper to gain track position.  Hamlin has completed every lap attempted at Bristol (3 Busch Races & 1 Cup Race), so he definitely knows how to get around there.

This would be another one day show featuring practice in the morning, qualifying in the afternoon and racing at night.  The car was decent in practice, but the team worked hard to make it better.  After pulling an early number and facing a slick track in qualifying, Hamlin was only able to secure the 22nd starting position; his worse qualifying effort of the 2006 season.

As the race started, Hamlin immediately began his assault on the front of the field.  Patiently making passes, Hamlin worked his way into the top 15.  Reporting that the car was good off the corner, it was still way too tight getting into the corner and they needed to make changes soon.  Rolling the dice, Crew Chief Dave Rogers called Hamlin in on lap 50, for four tires and host of changes.  Hamlin returned back in the 28th position, but that would be only temporary because most of the cars in front of him would pit during the next caution.  Remaining on the track in the seventh position, racing got tight and contact with the #00 machine of Johnny Sauter would send both cars sliding.  As the caution came out, Hamlin radioed in that he was coming to pit road due to flat spotting his tires.  Bolting on the last set of tires, Hamlin settled in for the remaining 170 laps of competition.

Although Hamlin moved up the scoring chart early, the car began to slide back to the teams that made their final stops 50 laps later.  Settled in the 15th position and with the car still not turning like he hoped, Hamlin made another stop on lap 175 for some major changes and 30 lap old tires.  This time the changes took hold and for the first time all evening the #20 car became a rocket ship.  Hamlin quickly moved from his 18th position back into the top 10.  In the final 20 laps, he had crawled up to the sixth position.  As the flagman gave the signal for 10 laps to go, it looked like the #20 team was going to gain one more position and come home with an improbable top five finish; however, the #39 car of Ryan Newman would not allow it, as he drove straight into the bumper of the #20 car spinning out of the way coming off turn four.  The spin would drop Hamlin to 22nd, the second to last car on the lead lap.  The finish would also drop Hamlin one position the points to third.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” commented Hamlin after the race.  “I could understand if he was racing me for a win; but it was for sixth place.  I just don’t understand why sixth place was that important to him.  We are racing for a point’s championship and every point counts.  You just really expect a lot more (patience) from a Cup driver with his level of experience.”