Virginia Native Becomes 23rd Driver to Win a Race in All Three of NASCAR’s National Series

Everything went according to plan for Denny Hamlin and the No. 18 Toyota/Traxxas Tundra team in the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway Saturday. The combination of Hamlin and Kyle Busch Motorsports proved to be a winning one, as crew chief Eric Phillips prepared a gameplan that was executed to perfection by Hamlin.

The Virginia native, making his first start for the team owned by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, led twice for a race-high 88 laps – including the final 14 – en route to his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory. Hamlin, making his 13^th career Truck Series start, became the 23^rd driver to win a race in all of NASCAR’s top three divisions and gave KBM their first win in four tries at the. 526-mile oval.

Busch, who registered runner-up finishes in each of his two starts in his No. 18 Tundra at Martinsville, decided a few weeks ago that perhaps the best chance for his team to win a grandfather clock would be to sit today’s race out to and put Hamlin, widely considered one of the best drivers at Martinsville, behind the wheel of the Toyota/Traxxas Tundra. Hamlin happily accepted the offer to drive for one of the premier teams in the Truck Series, figuring it would his best chance to collect his first Truck Series win.

“I have to thank Kyle for letting me drive the No. 18 Tundra,” said Hamlin, who won for the fifth time over his last six starts at his home-state track. “This is something that really means a lot to me, to get my very first Truck Series victory. Just have to thank everyone at Toyota and Traxxas for helping support Kyle’s program. This is a big race for all these guys and to have all these fans come out to Martinsville is great.”

Hamlin started the 200-lap race from the third position and was scored exactly where he started when the first caution of the race occurred on lap 38. He communicated to Phillips that his Tundra was “a little bit tight in the center of the corners and free off.”

When pit road opened, he brought the No. 18 Toyota/Traxxas Tundra down pit road where the KBM over-the-wall crew put on four fresh tires, with an air pressure adjustment, and filled the Toyota with fuel. Hamlin returned to the track and was scored in the seventh position when the race restarted on lap 43.

Hamlin had made his way back up to the fourth position by the time that the next caution occurred on lap 49. He found himself stuck on the outside lane for the lap 58 restart and lost a few positions as the race went back green. Once the field went single file, the 30-year old driver methodically made his way back towards the front of the field.

On lap 73, the Virginia native maneuvered his way into the second spot and set his sights on Ron Hornaday Jr., as he communicated to the crew, “Here we go.” To the lead is where they went on lap 77 as the race proceeded under green flag conditions, slowly began pulling away from the field. The No. 18 continued to pace the field until surrendering the lead to Johnny Sauter on lap 131. Shortly after dropping to the second spot, the field was slowed by the sixth caution of the race.

Before the race, Phillips had communicated to his driver that under ideal circumstances the team’s final pit stop would be administered with around 75 laps remaining in the race. The Winningest active crew chief in the Truck Series saw his plan come to fruition and ordered Hamlin down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. The No. 18 returned to the track scored in the 18^th position.

Working his way through heavy traffic, Hamlin took until lap 158 to make his return to the top 10. On lap 167, running the fastest lap times of any driver on the track, he made his way into the sixth spot and proclaimed “this isn’t over.”

Hamlin was scored in the fourth position when the field was slowed for the eighth time on lap 173. Shortly after the restart, the ninth caution of the race slowed the field for the final time on lap 180 with the No. 18 scored in the third position.

Austin Dillon led the field to the stripe with Hornaday Jr. in second place on the lap 170 restart. As the field entered Turn 1, Dillon and Hornaday Jr. made contact and floated to the high side of the track as Hamlin dove to the inside and regained the lead coming out of Turn 2. As the race proceeded caution free to the finish, Hamlin slowly pulled away crossing the stripe 1.2 seconds ahead of Hornaday Jr. to earn the victory.

“On the last restart — I just needed them to get single file so I could pick them off. I felt like our truck was so much faster at that point of the race — we had better tires and we just needed them to get single file or figure out who was going to be in front,” said Hamlin. “Obviously, we had some transmission over the radio and we knew those guys were racing for points so I didn’t want to put them in a bad spot. I told them if they just moved right over and let me go then they could gladly race right behind me. That’s exactly what they did. It was just a great battle back — definitely the hardest 50 laps that I’ve ever driven at this race track. I had to restart 18th. We didn’t think that was going to be the case, but still like to see it work out. We just had to battle and it was so tough just to get through those trucks running two and three-wide — just proud of this whole team.”

Dillon finished third, Johnny Sauter fourth and Joey Coulter fifth. Kevin Harvick, Cale Gale, Timothy Peters, Brendan Gaughan and James Buescher rounded out the top-10 finishers.

Hamlin’s teammate, Josh Richards, was running in the top 10 before have a tire going flat after being ran into late in the race. He finished three laps down in the 28^th spot.

Despite nine caution periods for 50 laps, 34 of 36 competitors were running at the finish.

The No. 18 Tundra team, which scored its series-leading eighth win of 2011, remains second in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owners’ point standings. The team trails KHI’s No. 2 team by 72 points with just two races remaining on the 2011 schedule.

KBM PR