Denny Hamlin delivers Nationwide Series victory at Kansas
By Reid Spencer - Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Saturday, September 27, 2008
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David Griffin / NASCAR Scene
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin celebrates his win in Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway.
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Denny Hamlin held off Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer to win Saturday's Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, but Bowyer extended his margin in the standings over his two closest pursuers.
Joe Gibbs Racing's Hamlin led every lap of a 36-lap green-flag run to finish the race and crossed the finish line 1.407 seconds ahead of Richard Childress Racing's Bowyer. Hamlin claimed his fourth Nationwide victory of the season and the ninth of his career, as Toyota locked up the manufacturers' championship in its second year in the series.
Roush Fenway Racing's David Ragan finished third, followed by Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards, Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth and JR Motorsports' Brad Keselowski. With five races left on the schedule, Bowyer leads second-place Edwards by 196 points and third-place Keselowski by 268.
"We made adjustments on every pit stop," said Hamlin, who took the lead for the first time on lap 94 and led a race-high 99 laps. "We didn't have the best car in qualifying, and we didn't have the best car early in the race, but we just kept making it better."
Hamlin had opened a lead over Kevin Harvick Inc.'s Kevin Harvick that exceeded two seconds when Harvick fell off the pace with an ignition problem on lap 139. That handed the second position to Kenseth, who trailed Hamlin by more than four seconds when contact from Mike Bliss' Phoenix Racing Chevrolet sent Kyle Busch's Braun Racing Toyota into the Turn 4 wall.
"Left a lug nut loose (on the previous green-flag pit stop) and got run over by the 1 (Bliss) trying to get back to pit road," Busch said.
Harvick, who had led 88 of the first 93 laps, lost a lap in the pits during the cycle of green-flag stops while his crew changed batteries in the No. 33 Chevrolet. NASCAR called the caution for Busch's accident with Harvick still on pit road.
Edwards had an early problem with the front valance on his No. 60 Ford but fought back to finish fourth.
"The car just was not as fast all day as I thought it was going to be," Edwards said. "We got a good finish, but we didn't close any points on Clint. He did his job today and stretched out his lead."
Note: Nationwide career victory leader Mark Martin looked to be a contender for the win until he blew a left-rear tire exiting Turn 2 on lap 44 and slammed into the outside wall driver-side-first in his JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Team owners Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an anxious moment when they couldn't reach Martin on the radio. As it turned out, the impact had knocked the radio out of commission. Martin later was released from the infield care center with a clean bill of health. He finished 38th.
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