Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin third in NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix … again
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin finished third in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
Related stories: Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson dominates at Phoenix; takes commanding lead into final race
Jeff Burton rebounds from poor qualifying effort to finish second at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. – For the fourth time in his NASCAR Cup series career, Denny Hamlin finished third in a race at Phoenix International Raceway. So while Hamlin was certainly pleased to run well in Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at PIR, he understandably wanted more.
“We had a good day,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “You know, we threw a lot of different things at the car this morning, figuring that we were going to be a fifth‑ to 10th‑place car by the practice sheets. We have a new car here, ran a setup that we never really ran before.
“We finished where we usually do at this race track. … No matter what you throw in the car, I'm the best of the worst or the worst of the best, one of the two.”
Hamlin was one of the few drivers in the race who appeared to have any shot at beating Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson, who led 238 of 312 laps en route to a victory that was a significant step in his attempt to win a fourth consecutive Cup title.
Thanks to fast pit work under a final cycle of green-flag stops, Hamlin emerged just a few car lengths off Johnson’s rear bumper with 65 laps to go and hung with the Hendrick driver for several laps before fading down the stretch.
Hamlin gave up second to Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton with 29 laps to go and held on from there to net his 14th top-five and 19th top-10 of the season.
“Jimmie, when I did see him those last 50 laps, for the first time all day, I mean, he just has a tremendous arc into the corner,” Hamlin said. “Of course, I tried to do that as soon as I saw that. My car just would not respond to doing that. So, I mean, they set up their cars evidently to run that type of line. For whatever reason, Turn 3, everyone enters that corner the same, but he can just accelerate off the corners much, much better than a lot of guys.
“That's what makes him so strong on the short tracks and one of the guys you usually have to beat every time, because they're so strong on corner exit. You know, we turn the center as good as them, but we just don't have the acceleration they do from that point on.”
Hamlin remained eighth in NASCAR’s 12-driver Chase For The Sprint Cup with one race remaining this season.
Johnson, meanwhile, stretched his series lead from 73 to 108 points over teammate Mark Martin, who finished fourth. Johnson rebounded from a disappointing outing in last weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway where he finished 38th on the heels of a lap-3 crash.
Johnson gave up 111 points to Martin in that race but once again appears poised to capture a series record fourth straight crown.
“Any time that Jimmie is down it’s not usually because of performance, it's usually because of an incident like you had last week,” Hamlin said. “There was no doubt in my mind they were going to come this week and make a statement. Obviously leading all the laps pretty much and winning the race sends a statement out there that he is the best, that they're not going to be denied this year.
“The only thing that was going to keep him from winning the championship this year was bad luck. Obviously, they had a big enough gap where they could afford that one bad luck that they had last week.”
