Denny Hamlin prevailed in a four-lap dash to the checkered flag to win a wreck-fest at newly paved Watkins Glen International on Sunday.
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Hamlin led the final ten laps after passing Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch to take the lead on a restart on lap 81.
Road course racing can be a huge factor in determining if a driver makes the Chase or not, and the race this year at the Glen was no different.
It’s the 28th win of Hamlin’s career.
“We just got the fan-walk pass and and coming and enjoying the show, great show”, Richter said.
“I got the text this morning when he woke up”. And I don’t know really what it was. “Really doubted being in the race vehicle today, to be honest with you, but can’t say enough about this whole FedEx Freight Toyota team”, he continued.
Joey Logano, Keselowski, AJ Allmendinger and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.
That craziness included eight cautions for 20 laps, four for multicar incidents in the final 38 laps.
Hamlin won the race in pain, with nerve endings on fire in his back. Brad Keselowski was responsible for Truex’s spin, and the Furniture Row Racing driver hit Keselowski’s Ford a few times on the cool-down lap in retaliation. Both cars went wide off the 90-degree turn 1 and opened the door for Hamlin to sneak through.
Logano won the Xfinity Series Zippo 200 at The Glen on Saturday and came up just shy of sweeping Watkins Glen’s Xfinity and Sprint Cup races for the second year in a row.
Each time the race was restarted Hamlin maintained his position despite a persistent push from second-place running Martin Truex Jr. Logano would be rewarded with the runner-up finish, and his ninth Top 5 of the season.
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.
There was sloppiness in the pits too, with 18 of the 40 drivers penalized for some kind of pit road infraction.
Hamlin was poised to win at the road course in Sonoma, California, in June but was passed by Stewart on the final corner.
The race was shaping up as another duel between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch in the closing laps.
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For the second straight year, the Daytona 500 champion also has gone to Victory Lane at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen road course, with Hamlin joining 2015 victor Logano in that accomplishment.
