Hamlin dominates Busch race

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Aug. 18, 2007

• Slideshow | Saturday at Michigan
• Race Results | Michigan 250

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Denny Hamlin had victory so firmly in hand in the closing moments of Saturday’s Carfax 250 race in the NASCAR Busch Series that he had time to plot a practical joke.

As Hamlin came toward the checkered flag, he radioed crew chief Dave Rogers that his car was out of gas.

“I figured the guys were pretty bored with just watching us going around the track,” said Hamlin, who actually had plenty of fuel. “But I didn’t want to jinx myself from saying it too soon and then running out, so I waited until I thought I could coast in.”

Rogers said his driver was “due for a beating” for the comment.

Hamlin was the only one left due, though, since he’d had just put a beating on everybody else on a cool, cloudy Saturday.

It was largely academic, in fact, after a round of green-flag pit stops with just less than 100 miles left.

Hamlin and Matt Kenseth had see-sawed up front, swapping the lead four times between laps 33 and 68 and generally running nose-to-tail or side-by-side while trying out various lines around this wide 2-mile track.

Both came to pit road on Lap 78 of the 125-lap race, but a lug nut fell off a tire and had to be retrieved during Kenseth’s stop. Hamlin’s stop came off without a hitch and that allowed to get back up to speed faster.

Hamlin was about two seconds ahead of Kenseth once Bobby Labonte came in to complete the final round of stops, and from there he poured it on to win by nearly seven seconds.

“We were about the same,” Kenseth said. “We just got a little too tight as the track changed. I would have liked to have had a chance to battle him at the end, but we just got too far behind on the pit stop.”

Kevin Harvick, who’d won the previous two Busch races on road courses at Montreal and Watkins Glen, finished third. Jeff Burton was fourth and Greg Biffle was fifth.

Despite that fact that Carl Edwards is still a runaway leader – by 700 points – in the Busch Series driver standings, Burton’s finish in the No. 29 Chevrolet moved that Richard Childress-owned team into the lead in the owner standings.

Burton shares that ride with Scott Wimmer, and they’re now 40 points ahead of Edwards in that less-closely followed championship race.

Edwards finished 28th Saturday after having his car damaged in an early incident with Reed Sorenson.

“I don’t know what he was thinking out there,” Edwards said. “I guess there’s a reason he runs like he does. …It was just a very frustrating day.”

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