Denny Hamlin wins all three segments in Sprint Unlimited victory
Feb. 15, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
DAYTONA
BEACH, Fla. -- Denny Hamlin survived a war of attrition to win Saturday
night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season-opening exhibition
race at Daytona International Speedway.
The
winner of all three segments of the 75-lap event, Hamlin was running up
front and out of harm's way when a wreck halved the field
early in the second segment.
And
on a night when the pace car caught fire and had to be abandoned
between the second and final segments, Hamlin won the race with
a three-wide move on the backstretch on the next-to-last lap at the
2.5-mile superspeedway.
The
event was decided in a five-lap dash after a Lap 66 collision with
Marcos Ambrose in Turn 1 eliminated the No. 88 Chevrolet of Dale
Earnhardt Jr., who had surrendered the lead to Joey Logano two laps
earlier.
Brad
Keselowski ran second, followed by Kyle Busch, Logano and Kevin
Harvick, whose No. 4 Chevrolet was damaged in the nine-car wreck
that punctuated segment No. 2.
"The
best car won -- that's for sure," said Hamlin, who won the last race of
the 2013 season, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. "Two in a
row now. We're building on something. That was survival of the fittest,
that's for sure.
"With
three (laps) to go, we were at the tail end of a very small pack, and
it's really hard to get runs. But this car was phenomenal."
With
15 laps left, Kyle Busch spun in Turn 4 off the nose of Keselowski's
Ford, as Busch tried to move down the track. The resulting
yellow gave Ryan Newman and Hamlin, the winner of the first two
segments, a chance to make pit stops. Fresh tires certainly helped the
race winner.
After
fan voting closed at 6 p.m., drivers learned the structure of the race
-- segments of 30, 25 and 20 laps in that order. When the
engines were fired, roughly 55 minutes after the close of another fan
vote, the method of ordering the field was revealed, and the starting
lineup was set according to speeds in Friday's final practice.
That
put Hamlin on the pole, with Jamie McMurray beside him. Matt Kenseth,
Newman and Jimmie Johnson, who sat out the final practice
session, started 16th through 18th, respectively in the 18-car field.
Typical
of restrictor-plate racing, however, starting position had little
relevance. Hamlin went from the pole to last place and back
to the lead again in the first 35-lap segment. Johnson advanced from
the tail end of the field to the top five within the space of 20 laps.
In
danger of losing the draft on Lap 6, Danica Patrick rallied to run as
high as third in the first segment, using the inside line to
advance to the front, as Hamlin and Johnson did likewise.
But
Johnson's night ended early, after he spun off Turn 4 on Lap 30,
bringing the first 30-lap run to an end under caution. Johnson's
No. 48 Chevrolet was too badly damaged to continue, marking the third
straight year the six-time champion has crashed out of the
season-opening exhibition race.
"Well, that didn't last long," Johnson posted on his Twitter account.
Johnson's
wreck paled in comparison with the nine-car melee that followed on Lap
37 of the second segment. Kenseth turned sideways near
the start/finish line after contact with the No. 22 Ford of Logano. The
resulting wreck collected most of the cars behind Kenseth.
Tony
Stewart, racing for the first time since breaking his right leg in a
sprint car accident on Aug. 5, was pinned against the outside
wall in a three-car tangle that included the Chevrolets of Jeff Gordon
and Kurt Busch. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s Ford slammed into the Chevy of
girlfriend Danica Patrick, who had spun in the tri-oval.
Kenseth
apologized for triggering the wreck, which started when Kenseth tried
to move from the outside to the inside lane and hit Logano's
Ford.
"I
was just kind of easing my way down there, and I had no idea Joey was
that close to me," Kenseth said. "…Not the way you want to
start the season."
Stewart seemed no worse for the wear after climbing from his car.
"There's no pain right now," he said. "But we'll see what happens in about an hour when the adrenaline wears off."
Stenhouse
was out of control after running into the back of Busch's Chevrolet in
the pileup that damaged all four Stewart-Haas Racing
entries.
"I
didn't see anything from the time it started to the time it ended,"
Stenhouse said. "Talking to Danica when I got in there (infield
care center) that I drilled her when she was pretty much sitting
still. I couldn't see, couldn't turn and just really destroyed our
Nationwide Insurance Ford."
The
accident left nine cars to take the green flag on Lap 41, including two
-- Logano's Ford and Harvick's Chevy -- that were involved
in the crash. Harvick quickly dropped back and lost the draft because
of crash damage but stayed on the lead lap through the end of the
segment.
Hamlin
grabbed the lead on Lap 47 and held it for the final nine laps of the
segment No. 2, crossing the start/finish line .131 seconds
ahead of Keselowski.
The
final fan vote of the night, announced before the last 20-lap run,
determined the restart lineup for the final segment would be
set by running order off pit road after a mandatory pit stop, with
crews changing at least two tires.
Hamlin
won the race off pit road, lost the lead to Earnhardt but worked his
way back to the front a lap and a half before the finish.
No comments:
Post a Comment