In a thrilling finish fraught with suspense, and in a backup car after a Friday crash in practice, Denny Hamlin held off a charging Kyle Larson to win the Overton’s 301 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Before the race, Hamlin and the entire Joe Gibbs Racing organization was in desperation mode, but when Hamlin took the checkered flag .509 seconds ahead of Larson, the picture changed dramatically. Hamlin secured a spot in the 10-race postseason playoff, which is now seven races away. In winning for the third time at the Magic Mile and the 30th time in his career, the driver of the #11 Toyota broke a personal 20-race drought, dating to last year’s playoff event at Texas Motor Speedway. That was also the last time any of the four JGR cars had won a race. Taking the green flag for the final time from the fourth position in the outside lane at a track treated with traction compound before the race, Hamlin passed teammate Matt Kenseth for the lead on Lap 268 and pulled out to an advantage of more than 2.5 seconds before Larson began to run him down. Kenseth had passed eventual third-place finisher Martin Truex Jr. for the top spot on Lap 261, one lap before Ryan Newman’s spin in Turn 2 caused the seventh caution and set up the final restart. Kenseth took right-side tires only under the yellow and was no match for Hamlin and Larson, who had fresh rubber on all four corners. Martin Truex Jr. led the first 78 laps and picked up his 14th stage win of the season in the first 75-lap segment, but a caution on Lap 67 for Cole Whitt’s blown engine divided the field on strategy. Truex stayed out under the yellow with 10 other drivers and collected the playoff point for the stage victory, while Kyle Busch led the rest of the field to pit road.(NASCAR Wire Service)[Read More Here]
