Denny Hamlin was all smiles as the fireworks exploded over his head in Daytona this 4th of July. He wasn't thinking about Independence Day, he was thinking about the 100th win he had just earned for car owners Joe and JD Gibbs in his very last ride in the #20 car that had treated him so well the two previous years he'd been its sole pilot.
When he headed to the comfort of his motorcoach, no doubt he was wondering what it would be like to sweep the festivities at the night races in Daytona. After all he was starting 15th in the Coke Zero 400 and he had a pretty decent chance of handing the country a free Coke Zero. It was anybody's race to win. But the same went for the opposite. It was anybody's race to lose.
When you roll off the grid at Daytona, you risk the chance of being caught up in the big one. No one even wants to think about it let alone experience it, but it lingers in the back of your mind and hangs around no matter how hard you try to ignore it. The only safe place is out front and that's one piece of real estate that's in high demand when the green flag waves. If anyone could make it to the front and stay there Denny Hamlin was up for that tough task.
Hamlin fought a loose car for the first half of the race and the team made track bar and wedge adjustments to dial the car to send Hamlin to lead lap 115. Hamlin then battled with the leaders until he was struck from behind on lap 136 putting him out of contention for the win.
To end the evening, and add insult to injury, Hamlin was caught up in yet another incident with three laps to go. After nearly clearing a multi-car accident he was clipped in the right rear and fell further back in the pack. Hamlin and the FedEx Office Camry would finish in the 26th spot for the night, good enough for him to remain in seventh place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points.
Hamlin looked like he might be able to visit Victory Lane for the second time in two nights - having won the Nationwide Race on Friday evening - until Martin Truex Jr. ran into the back of Hamlin coming off of Turn four on lap 136. Hamlin was in the middle of a multi-car draft, running 180 miles-per-hour while only inches from the other cars, when Truex closed in on him and sent Hamlin spinning into the inside retaining wall inside, causing major rear-end damage to the #11 FedEx Office Camry. The crew fixed the damage as well as they could but could not return the car to its original form. Hamlin was actually turning fairly competitive lap times after the incident, running well through the corners but struggling on the straights because of aerodynamic problems to the car.
"When I got hit from behind we were working our way back to the front of the pack and thinking about taking the lead. It's too bad because I know the #11 FedEx Office car could have been in contention at the end of the race,” said a disgusted Hamlin. "In the final wreck of the night I thought I was going to make it through and just got clipped at the last second. But, by then we were already out of contention, we were just trying to get some points."
"Daytona is always a tough place to race - tonight shows that, but my hat is off to the whole FedEx team - we worked hard all night and got better and better but in the end it was out of our hands. We started out loose and worked on the FedEx Office Toyota and gradually made it better and better and we finally made it to the lead. I've got to add, the pit crew did a great job on the stops tonight – we definitely picked-up some spots tonight on pit road. We went from loose to tight and then finally got it right. We had good power and had a good car when we got to the lead."
Despite the disappointment of the evening's events, Hamlin and the FedEx team again showed they are capable of running up front. Hamlin led six laps Saturday night and has led 670 laps in ten races over the course of 18 NASCAR Sprint Cup events this year.
Hamlin will return to the racetrack again Saturday night for the Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.
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