Hamlin Rolls to Third Place Finish in Phoenix

 With the Busch Series rapidly wrapping up another season, the Series headed out to the Valley of the Sun to challenge the unique one-mile flat track.  With the #20 team bringing one of their best cars in the shop (who’s worst finish of the season is third), they were ready for Denny Hamlin to tackle the famed desert oval.

The car unloaded fast.  The team made some small changes in between practices and the car continued to pick up speed.  Concerned that the track would tighten up as the weekend went on, Crew Chief Dave Rogers chose to put a relatively loose setup in the car.  As Hamlin wrestled the car around for qualifying, his speed would only be good enough for the fifth starting position.

As the race started, Hamlin immediately radioed in that his car was loose all the way through the corner.  Even so, Hamlin was able to gain a position by lap 3 and comfortably ride in the 4th position.  Although he would have loved to duck onto pit road during one of the early cautions, Hamlin knew that he must protect his track position so he waited until the entire field pitted on lap 58.  The #20 Rockwell Automation pit crew gave Hamlin four tires and a round of wedge to tighten him up.  Hamlin returned to the track in the fifth position.  

As the race continued, Hamlin radioed in that he really needed more front grip to help the car turn better in the center of the corner.  Crew Chief Dave Rogers suggested they make a major change to the rear spring while turning a round on the track bar.  Knowing these adjustments would make the pit stop lengthy, Hamlin was hesitant to lose that much track position.  Confident that with a better car Hamlin would have a much better shot at the win, Rogers convinced Hamlin that was the way to go.

So during the caution period on lap 104, Hamlin followed the leaders to pit road.  Returning to the track in the 13th position, his worse running position of the day, the #20 car had its sights set on the front of the field.  With a long green flag ensuing, Hamlin used the time to gain positions.  By lap 120, Hamlin had returned to the top-ten and by lap 160, he had returned to the top-five.  As the long run continued, the #20 continued to be the fastest car on the track.  

An untimely caution flew on lap 171.  Knowing that tires would be worth over a second a lap of speed, Hamlin had no choice to follow the leaders to pit road for four tires and fuel.  The #20 crew gave Hamlin their best stop of the day returning him to the 4th position.  Hamlin quickly made fast work of Carl Edwards to grab the 3rd spot.  However, the final 20 laps were littered with four cautions and Hamlin would be forced to settle for a 3rd place finish, his ninth top-three finish of the year.

“Dave (Rogers) gave me a good car today,” commented Hamlin following the race.  “But he made some great calls on pit road to give me a great car by the end of the race.  The pit crew did their job and gave me a flawless stop at the end.  We were really good on the long runs.  At the end of the race, we just did not run enough laps to have a chance to run with those guys.  I think if the race had gone green the whole way, they would have had a tough time running with us.”