Motor Sports Update
Hamlin Scores Runner-up Finish at Texas
Dallas, TX (April 14, 2007) — Returning to the driver's seat of the #20 Rockwell Automation Chevrolet after a four week hiatus, Denny Hamlin prepared for the O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. TMS is a fast 1.5 mile track and was the location of Hamlin's first Busch Pole at this same race last April.
Thursday was ideal weather as the teams unloaded the cars for the weekend. The #20 car struggled off the truck and was extremely tight during the first practice. Crew Chief Dave Rogers made some aggressive changes and in the second practice the car came to life. Hamlin continued to show his speed later that evening by posting the sixth fastest time in qualifying with a lap of 187.552 mph.
Saturday morning a cold front moved into the area and temperatures dipped into the low 50's. As the green flag flew for the start of the O'Reilly 300, Hamlin quickly went on the move. By lap 5, Hamlin had moved into the top-3 and by lap 15, he was beating on the bumper of leader Kyle Busch. As the long green flag run continued, the #20 car continued to run the fastest laps on the track. On lap 49, Hamlin overtook Busch and led his first laps of the day. Concerned about the fuel mileage, Crew Chief Dave Rogers called for Hamlin to make a regularly scheduled pit stop on lap 51. The pit crew turned around one of their best stops of the season, but an untimely caution four laps later would forced the #20 car back to the 28th position, one of the last cars on the lead lap.
"I thought our day was over," said Hamlin. "The NASCAR Busch Series is so competitive that even with a car as good as this one, you just rarely can overcome mistakes. I questioned Dave (Rogers) pretty hard about why we pitted so soon, but our mileage was just off a little. We were going to have to pit by lap 53, so we would had the same result."
With the race leaders just three cars behind him, Hamlin knew he was going to have to stand on it until the next caution which would fly just 15 laps later. As the leaders chose to remain on the track, the second half of the field pitted. Hamlin followed them to pit road, but would just add gas and returned to the track in the 18th position. As the race restarted, a determined Hamlin started his assault to the front. Passing four cars on the first lap, it only took Hamlin 8 laps to return to the top-ten. By the halfway point in the race, Hamlin had returned to the top-five and was by far the fastest car on the racetrack. At lap 120, Hamlin had moved up to the 3rd position, when several of the lead lap cars were forced to pit for fuel moving Hamlin back to the top spot. This time lady luck shone on Hamlin as the caution flew for an accident trapping seven cars at the tail end of the lead lap, a fate similar to Hamlin's earlier in the race.
Hamlin headed to pit road for fresh tires, fuel and a small change to help the car drive through the corners. As Hamlin took the restart, he knew that the changes were not working. Unable to pull away from the other competitors as earlier in the race, Hamlin soon relinquished the lead to Casey Mears. Running in second until lap 162, Hamlin headed to pit road for his final stop of the race. The #20 pit crew executed a flawless stop returning Hamlin to the top spot. This time with the car hooked up, Hamlin once again pulled away from the field for the next 20 laps. With the final restart of the race coming at lap 185, Hamlin quickly cleared the field. Within six laps the 17 car of Matt Kennseth caught the bumper of Hamlin. Although Hamlin had a small cushion, his machine got loose off turn two and allowed Kennseth the lane to duck to the inside and complete the pass with a handful of laps to go. Although the #20 car would catch the bumper of the #17, he was unable to make a move and would be forced to settle for 2nd place.
"When you are out in clean air, these cars are right on the edge," commented Hamlin following the race. "I just overdrove it a little bit, got loose and opened the door to let Matt have the position and the win. The team gave me a great car that we barely had to adjust on all day. It is so hard to win a race in NASCAR and I just hate that I gave one away today. All day, I just had this feeling that 'today was our day'. When we were able to come back from our troubles earlier in the race and then gain track positions on the other fast cars, I really thought we were taking home a trophy."
The Busch Series will return to action next weekend for their first night race of the season. The Bashas' Supermarkets 200 is scheduled to start Friday evening, April 20th at 9:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN2. Qualifying for the race will be broadcast on Speed at 5:30 p.m. ET also on Friday.
