‘¢ Denny Hamlin won the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday. He started eighth to win his 11th Sprint Cup Series victory in his 162nd race. His last series victory was at Texas, three races ago. All 11 wins have come with crew chief Mike Ford. It was his seventh career superspeedway victory in 108 superspeedway races.
‘¢ Hamlin’s victory was his third win in 2010, tying Jimmie Johnson for most. It was Hamlin’s fourth top-10 finish in 11 races in 2010, all top-5s. It was his first Darlington Cup Series victory in five races. Hamlin is the 44th different race winner at Darlington.
‘¢ Hamlin also won Friday’s Nationwide Series race, the first weekend sweep of his career.
‘¢ Hamlin became the third driver to sweep both the Nationwide and Cup Darlington races in a single weekend, joining Dale Earnhardt (1987) and Mark Martin (1993).
‘¢ Hamlin has finished 13th or better in all five of his Darlington races. He led 104 of the 367 laps raced Saturday and climbed from seventh to sixth in the points standings.
‘¢ Hamlin’s win was the 81st Sprint Cup Series victory for Joe Gibbs Racing. It was JGR’s third Darlington victory (Bobby Labonte, September 2000; Kyle Busch, May 2008; Denny Hamlin, Saturday). JGR scored its fourth victory in 11 races in 2010 (Hamlin — 3, Busch — 1), most by all owners.
‘¢ There have been four different speedway winners this year: Jimmie Johnson (California and Las Vegas), Kurt Busch (Atlanta), Ryan Newman (Phoenix) and Denny Hamlin (Texas and Darlington).
‘¢ Jeff Gordon is the only driver to lead at least one lap in nine of the 11 races this season. Gordon leads all drivers, scoring 60 lap-leader bonus points. Gordon has won only once in the past 12 races in which he has led 100 or more laps. Gordon passed Cale Yarborough for fifth all time in laps led at Darlington (1,720).
‘¢ Four drivers have ranked in the top 12 after each race in 2010: Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth.
‘¢ Tony Stewart dropped from a season-high fifth in points after Bristol to 18th over the past six races.
‘¢ Johnson had a 108-point lead three races ago. He is now second, 110 points behind Harvick.
‘¢ Jamie McMurray (second) posted his best Darlington finish in 10 races.
‘¢ Kurt Busch (third) has been running at the finish in his 14 Darlington races.
‘¢ Gordon (fourth) extended a streak of seven straight Darlington top-5 finishes.
‘¢ Juan Pablo Montoya (fifth) posted his best Darlington finish. He has climbed from 24th to 17th in points in the past three races.
‘¢ Burton (eighth) extended a streak of five straight Darlington finishes of 12th or better.
‘¢ Newman (ninth) has scored five top-10 finishes in his past six Darlington races.
‘¢ Kenseth finished 13th in his 375th career start.
‘¢ Elliott Sadler (21st) has been running at the finish in his 18 Darlington races, the longest current streak.
‘¢ Joey Logano finished 27th in his 50th career start.
‘¢ This was Toyota’s second Darlington victory and the fourth victory in 11 races this season for the manufacturer. Chevrolet has six and Dodge has one while Ford remains winless in 2010.
‘¢ The top 10 consisted of six Chevrolets, three Toyotas and one Dodge.
‘¢ Kenseth was the highest-finishing Ford.(ESPN)(5-10-2010)
