Post by Ampenergy88 on Mar 30, 2010 10:03:09 GMT -5
www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/89491292.html
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Denny Hamlin surged to the front after a blunder and won the rain-delayed NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway in a wild finish.
The victory was Hamlin's second straight here on the shortest, oldest track in the Sprint Cup Series.
Hamlin gave up the lead with less than 10 laps left yesterday when he headed to pit road for tires. He then rallied from ninth place to the lead in just four laps.
"That's hard to do. I had to bully my way through there towards the end, but everybody was just running into everyone," Hamlin said. "I flattened my tire with [Matt] Kenseth going down the backstretch and just somehow made it work."
First, he hugged the inside into the first turn, forcing three-wide racing that almost never leads to anything good. He plowed his way into fourth place before teammate Kyle Busch spun out, bringing out a caution.
The finish was an overtime two-lap sprint on which Hamlin pushed Ryan Newman out of the way, then slipped inside Kenseth and leader Jeff Gordon for the victory - and the kind of racing that made about 30,000 fans glad they came on a work day.
The race was originally scheduled for Sunday but was postponed by rain.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Denny Hamlin surged to the front after a blunder and won the rain-delayed NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway in a wild finish.
The victory was Hamlin's second straight here on the shortest, oldest track in the Sprint Cup Series.
Hamlin gave up the lead with less than 10 laps left yesterday when he headed to pit road for tires. He then rallied from ninth place to the lead in just four laps.
"That's hard to do. I had to bully my way through there towards the end, but everybody was just running into everyone," Hamlin said. "I flattened my tire with [Matt] Kenseth going down the backstretch and just somehow made it work."
First, he hugged the inside into the first turn, forcing three-wide racing that almost never leads to anything good. He plowed his way into fourth place before teammate Kyle Busch spun out, bringing out a caution.
The finish was an overtime two-lap sprint on which Hamlin pushed Ryan Newman out of the way, then slipped inside Kenseth and leader Jeff Gordon for the victory - and the kind of racing that made about 30,000 fans glad they came on a work day.
The race was originally scheduled for Sunday but was postponed by rain.