Hamlin Comes Home from California with Top-15 Finish

After a rough weekend of beating and banging at Bristol Motor Speedway, the #20 Rockwell Automation / JGR team headed to the West Coast to tackle the 2 mile oval of California Speedway.  Bringing the same car and same set up from a successful run at California’s sister track, Michigan International Speedway, confidence going into the weekend was high.

The weekend began with two successful practice sessions but then the team was hindered by an early qualifying draw.  Although the car quickly moved to second on the board, as the track cooled, Hamlin’s time began to fall.  When qualifying concluded, Hamlin finished in the eight position.

As the field settled in for 300 miles of racing, Hamlin immediately went on the move at the drop of the green flag.  Moving up into the top five, Hamlin’s car began to get tight and he started to drop.  When the caution flew on lap 30, Hamlin followed the leaders to pit road for some much needed adjustments.  Crew Chief Dave Rogers called for some major changes and with a lug nut problem, Hamlin returned to the track in the 12th position.  The car seemed to respond to the changes early in the run and the #20 car quickly appeared back in the top-ten.  As the run continued, the car began to tighten up again.  Hamlin would make his second stop of the night during the caution period on lap 75.

After a short green flag run, the caution flew for a three car incident on lap 90.  Knowing they were 8 laps short of their fuel window, Hamlin remained on the track with the leaders while several cars used the caution to top off their fuel tanks.  The final caution never arrived and Hamlin was forced to pit for fuel and four tires at lap 130.  With all the leaders making pit stops with different strategies (four tires, two tires or no tires), the field became extremely jumbled.  Hamlin returned to the track in the 26th positioned and was able to climb back to 15th when the checkered flag fell.

“I think we had a car capable of finishing in the top five,” commented Hamlin following the race.  “We were extremely tight at the beginning but got the car turning pretty good at the end.  These JGR engines make the best horsepower in the field, but I guess some others were making a little better fuel mileage.  We knew we couldn’t make it to the end on the last caution, so we just rode it out and protected our track position.  One more caution before or after the green flag stop and we would have been sitting pretty with four tires.”