“I thought, ‘Man, this is really cool to be in the driver’s seat right now'”.
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“I woke up with back spasms – hits me every three or four months”.
The sixth caution flew on lap 78 for a blown engine and erased a 5-second lead the two leaders had built over Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano, who was seeking his second straight sweep of the Cup and Xfinity races at The Glen. Meanwhile the rest of the field self-destructed in their wake. We can still go get six or seven wins before the year is out, I think. I don’t feel like we’re behind.
Kyle Busch challenged for the lead early, but damage to his splitter forced him to the pits and he also was involved in a nine-car crash that sent him to the garage.
Who Had a Bad Day: A multi-car accident on lap 53 eliminated several drivers from competition including Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Greg Biffle and Austin Dillon.
Hamlin held a slim lead over Truex and Keselowski as the three ran nose-to-tail entering the final turns of the race.
Hamlin led Joey Logano, Truex, Kyle Larson and Keselowski on the restart.
This is Hamlin’s first road course win and his 28 career win in the Sprint Cup Series. Along with his Daytona 500 victory, he also has won the Southern 500 and an All-Star race.
Hamlin admitted he was suffering from back problems but still managed to muscle his way to the win.
“He said it was his fault, I said I knew that”, he said during the broadcast. Edwards turned a lap of 126.562 miles per hour in the final round of qualifying to grab his fourth pole of 2016. It was by far the worst conditions I’ve ever had to drive in, over the knees (Hamlin has had surgery on both), anything else.
“It was just the front two cars, the 2 (Keselowski) and the 18 (Busch) just overshot the corner in that one restart and gave us an opportunity”, Hamlin said. “It’s hard to say I’m not really sure what to expect”. “You can’t race without them”.
“It means a lot”, Hamlin said. After two quick restart, Alex Kennedy blew up on Lap 76 to ignite the seventh yellow flag.
Hamlin tool the lead with nine laps to go thanks to a insane scene with leaders Kyle Busch and Keselowski.
Truex Jr was playing offence and defense as he was trying to past Hamlin and block off Keselowski. I just wanted him to know I wasn’t happy after the race. It’s his first career victory at a road course and it did not come easy.
Hamlin said that his biggest disappointment in his narrow miss at Sonoma was not completing the cycle of victories on all types of tracks that NASCAR races on.
“We’re actually locals. We live in Watkins Glen and we like to come out and support the community and we really enjoy NASCAR racing”, Sharon Upham said. The two met face-to-face a few times, and A-Rod said he asked for one more chance to play in front of a NY crowd. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I was we didn’t win the first one (road course race at Sonoma Raceway in June)”.
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“These race teams are way too smart for everyone to make one mistake”. He has ran me hard, but we always race pretty well, but today was flat out stupid.
