As the NASCAR Busch Series headed to Watkins Glen, NY for the running of the Zippo 200 at the 2.45 mile road course at Watkins Glen International, the #20 Rockwell Automation / JGR team was confident with its recent success at road courses.  It was just a little over five months ago when Denny Hamlin collected his first NASCAR Busch Series win at the road course race in Mexico City, and the team hoped to utilize their driver’s new found success in making both left and right-handed turns.  It would be Hamlin’s second visit to the Glen, and drawing on that past experience made it evident that strategy and luck were going to be the names of the game in NASCAR’s 2006 road course finale.  

The team brought car #2055 as the primary machine for the race, and it is the same chassis that ran to Victory Lane in Mexico City.  The weekend aimed to be ideal for racing as the team unloaded the car on Friday, weather and track conditions were near-perfect as mostly sunny skies and 75 degree temperatures drenched Northwestern New York.  On top of the pristine conditions, the #20 machine had managed to put up the second quickest time in first practice.  Second practice was shortened to just over 20 minutes, but Hamlin still managed to put up the fifth fastest time as he spent all day juggling two Cup practices, two Busch practices and Cup qualifying.  A long Friday set up for Saturday afternoon qualifying and an early afternoon start to the Zippo 200 feature.

NASCAR Busch Qualifying was slightly different this week.  Instead of the usual two individual laps by all drivers, groups of five drivers were sent out to run for five minutes.  The driver’s fastest circuit in those five minutes would distinguish the driver’s qualifying time and the field would be set accordingly.  The #20 team went out in the last grouping of the day, and managed to post the tenth fastest time of qualifying.  As the field took to the track for the 2:15 pm start of the race, it would be the #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet lined up next to the #64 machine of Jamie McMurray in the fifth row.  

When the green flag dropped on the Glen Saturday afternoon, it was clear that the #20 team would be in for some intense road course racing.  Again strategy was the name of the game, with the course being almost 2.5 miles long and lap times close to 80 seconds, teams would be able to pit under green with no fear of going a lap down.  With that in mind, Crew Chief Dave Rogers opted for a Lap 12 pit stop for tires and fuel.  The car was handling well to this point and no chassis adjustments were made to the setup of the car.  While running 5th, the caution flew on Lap 31 just in front of Hamlin as he approached “the Bus Stop”, the #02 manned by Ryan Newman had engine trouble and left oil all over the entrance of the turn.  As Hamlin sped into the turn, he hit the oil, lost control of the #20 machine and ended up off course in the gravel pit.  To top things off, Hamlin’s car slammed into the side of Newman’s disabled machine.  The #20 limped back to pit road where quick thinking and hard work by the entire #20 over-the-wall team managed to get the car back into race ready conditions.  Work was done to the right front fender and right-side quarter panel in order to maintain proper ground clearance and drivable conditions.  Even with the entire team managing to keep the #20 on the lead lap, a third trip to Victory Lane in 2006 was decidedly thwarted.  Hamlin was still able to wrestle a tight handling car from the 34th position up to a 12th place finish even after the potential catastrophic mishap.  

“We had a good car today but just got caught in someone else’s mess,” commented Hamlin following the race.  “I don’t know if our car was as good as the 39 & 7, but we were definitely good enough to finish in the top-five.  At road courses, track position is critical.  After the damage, that car didn’t handle great, but falling 30 positions on the track is what did us in.  You just don’t have enough time to make up all that distance.”
   
Even with the accident the team managed to narrow the margin in the NASCAR Busch Series Points.  With the twelfth place finish, Hamlin is now only 54 points behind Carl Edwards, who is second place in the NASCAR Busch Series Driver Points.  This weekend, the Busch Series heads to Michigan International Speedway.