Hamlin cruises to second consecutive Dover victory
By Bob Pockrass – Associate Editor
Sunday, June 01, 2008
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Geoff Burke / Getty Images for NASCAR
Denny Hamlin celebrates after winning the Heluva Good! 200 on Saturday afternoon at Dover International Speedway.
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DOVER, Del. – Amid all the Joey Logano hype, it was a more seasoned Joe Gibbs Racing driver who wound up in the winner's circle. Denny Hamlin stole the show by dominating the Heluva Good! 200 Saturday at Dover International Speedway.
Hamlin led 131 of the 200 laps, outlasting the field and a nearly three-hour rain delay to earn his second Nationwide Series victory of the season and his second consecutive series win at Dover.
“It’s a great win for us,” said Hamlin, who won for the seventh time in 101 career series starts. “We just bided our time and ran as hard as we needed to at certain points of that race and everything paid off there at the end.”
Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards finished second, followed by Rusty Wallace Racing’s David Stremme, Michael Waltrip Racing’s David Reutimann and Roush Fenway’s Greg Biffle.
Logano, who turned 18 last week, stayed out of trouble and finished sixth in his much-heralded debut.
Hamlin’s only real challenge came from Kyle Busch, who was driving for Braun Racing at Dover and led 68 laps. But Busch’s car sustained damage after contact with JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski on the tight pit road and Busch restarted 17th with 92 laps remaining.
As he worked his way through the field, he went to the high side between turns 1 and 2 to pass Braun teammate Jason Leffler, who moved to the middle groove and then got loose and spun into Busch. Leffler took the blame for the incident that occurred with 31 laps remaining.
Without having to worry about Busch coming through the field, Hamlin seemed to cruise to the win with the No. 18 team, which doesn’t run the entire season, by beating Edwards by more than one second.
“Second place is not a lot of fun,” Edwards said. “I do enjoy racing here. My hat’s off to Denny and everybody at Gibbs.”
Edwards remained third in points. Richard Childress Racing’s Clint Bowyer finished ninth and now leads Busch by 121 points, Edwards by 144 points and Reutimann by 166 points with 21 races left in the season.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Carl Edwards
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