Denny Hamlin went to victory lane on Saturday at Darlington Raceway in the No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin, a native of Virginia, led the field for 33 of the 148 circuits enroute to his 16th career XFINITY Series victory.
Hamlin and the No. 18 team battled a loose condition all throughout the afternoon.
“Well, I was really loose all day long and that really hampered us on the short runs, but we got our car much, much better there at the end and we were able to battle with those guys and I thought we were going to have a great battle with the 41 (Kevin Harvick) there with 10 to go, but the caution came out and it just made it exciting in a different way.”
The win did not come easy for the 36-year old. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran held off Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick in NASCAR Overtime. Through four XFINITY Series starts in 2017, Hamlin holds two victories, three top five, and three top 10 finishes.
“Yeah, it definitely was. I didn’t anticipate the 22 (Joey Logano) getting back to us like that, but he did and hats off to them and they didn’t have probably the fastest car, but they had great pit stops all day and put themselves in position and then I knew going down the backstretch that he was going to have inside position,” said Hamlin when asked about the final restart. “It was up to me then to back up the corner, let him slide up the race track and slide back around him on the exit, so it takes a lot of patience, but glad it all worked out for us and this whole Sport Clips team.”
Joey Logano led the most laps of any driver in the Sports Clips VFW 200 at Darlington Raceway. However, when things were all said and done, Logano sat second on the leaderboard after starting in 10th.
“Obviously, second hurts. We want to win every one of them and we just got out-motored,” Logano said after the 148-lap event. “He (Denny Hamlin) went through the gear box and got position on me and off he went. He had me at his right-rear quarter, which allowed him to stay wide open and clear me. I thought I had a run down the backstretch. He knew what I was thinking and I knew what he was thinking. I was just hoping that I got up to the wall and was able to rotate when I got there, but I just got tight when I got there.”
The veteran racer led the field for 58 of the 148 laps and will leave with his sixth top five finish of the season. Through 10 XFINITY Series starts, Logano has six top five and nine top 10 finishes.
Kevin Harvick will round out the top three finishers on Saturday in his No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford. Harvick won stage one and two and was a threat upfront all day long. The Stewart-Haas Racing Ford started second and led 54 laps of the event.
“It just didn’t wind up working out there at the end. I wound up on the bottom and I kept my foot in it over there, got loose underneath the 20,” said Harvick after the race. “We weren’t the strongest for five or 10 laps and that didn’t really work out with that short run there at the end and we got stuck on the bottom. We got loose and then we got freight-trained, but just a great car. It wound up being a great race and that’s all you can ask for.”
Harvick, through six XFINITY Series races in 2017, holds five top five and six top 10 finishes.
Elliott Sadler will continue leading the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver standings as the series heads to Richmond International Raceway. Sadler finished 33rd after he and Erik Jones tangled on the frontstretch in the closing laps. Jones continued on and later finished fourth.
Sadler leads the series standings by 91 points over teammate William Byron. Justin Allgaier, also a teammate of Sadler and Byron, sits third in XFINITY Series driver standings. Brennan Poole and Daniel Hemric round out the top five in points.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series will head to Richmond International Raceway for the Virginia 529 College Savings 250. The race will air live on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET. on Friday, September 8. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will carry the live radio broadcast.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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