Denny Hamlin withstood a chaotic ending to win Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at the Watkins Glen International road course.
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Denny Hamlin won the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen, Sunday, Aug. 7.
“I got the text this morning when he woke up”.
With stupendously powerful V-8 engines, top speeds that brush against 200 miles per hour, and a relatively high curb weight, the NASCAR series is renowned for spectacular crashes that occur mid-race.
Defending race victor Joey Logano ended up second after Brad Keselowski tapped Martin Truex Jr. from behind on the final turn as Hamlin took the checkered flag.
There was sloppiness in the pits too, with 18 of the 40 drivers penalized for some kind of pit road infraction.
Here are 5 lessons learned from Watkins Glen.
Truex continued to bump Keselowski as they drove side-by-side during a cool-down lap. As the cars neared the exit from Turn 7, with Truex running second and Keselowski third, contact from Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford sent Truex’s No. 78 Toyota spinning.
Instead, Truex was in the same lane Keselowski was. Keselowski spun Truex in the turn and Hamlin coasted to the victory.
Hamlin had the lead on the final corner at the series’ other road course race at Sonoma in June.
This time, Hamlin was error-free, left to ponder on how he managed to win a race he questioned whether he would be able to start.
Hamlin had moved into the lead with nine laps remaining and just before the penultimate caution period. “By far the worst pain-wise that I’ve had to go through”. The new No. 77 auto, which will. It was like, you know, not something you really want to hear.
By then, Wheeler already knew the condition of his driver. None of the drivers were injured in the incident that severely damaged their cars…. Neck spasms forced him out of his auto at Bristol, Tenn., in April 2015 and Erik Jones filled in the remainder of that race. He said the Gibbs team made changes since Sonoma that improved his feel for the auto under braking. Kyle Busch raced Keselowski so hard into Turn 1 that they both missed the corner, allowing Hamlin to dart through into a lead he would not relinquish.
Lap leaders: C. Edwards 1-25; M. Truex Jr.
Hamlin admitted he was suffering from back problems but still managed to muscle his way to the win.
“Knew I was in pretty big trouble”, said Hamlin, who has undergone two knee surgeries in his career.
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INFRACTIONS, INFRACTIONS: NASCAR increased the number of timing lines on pit road at Watkins Glen from six to 14 this year, and it ended up costing a lot of drivers a lot of time. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I was we didn’t win the first one”. We were there to pick up the pieces today. “We worked on it all day to try to make it better”.
