Denny Hamlin a runner-up at Richmond after final restart, Larson contact
RICHMOND, Va. — Denny Hamlin nearly capped his milestone 50th NASCAR Cup Series victory the previous week at Pocono with an encore for win No. 51 Sunday at Richmond Raceway. His time spent near the front was a familiar refrain, and so was some chance contact along the way with Kyle Larson.
Hamlin finished second to eventual Cook Out 400 winner Chris Buescher, who scooted away from the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the final restart with three laps left to win by 0.549 seconds. The result marked Hamlin’s fourth top-five finish in the last eight races, bumping him up to second in the Cup Series standings — 39 points back of JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. in the hunt for the regular-season crown.
MORE: Race results | At-track photos: Richmond
After Daniel Suárez’s spin prompted a late caution period, Hamlin was set up front row in the outside lane for the final green-flag sprint to the end, a shift from the previous week’s choice where he posted up on the inside line for the decisive penultimate restart at Pocono, then drifted up to crowd fellow front-runner Larson into the outside wall. No such confrontation occurred at Richmond, and Hamlin lamented that he had “drove in way too deep” to make a challenge to Buescher’s lead stick.
“No. I appreciate that’s a good talking point. But, no, it was not,” Hamlin told NBC Sports after being asked if other drivers might take liberties with him after his restart move last week. “I’m out there trying to win the race for sure. I loved getting the front row. I just got a god-awful restart. Kyle (Busch) just pushed me down the front straightaway, which is really helpful for us. Thanks for that. I just didn’t do a good job on the restart. I didn’t do a good job into Turn 1 on the second-to-last lap. Our team gave us a shot.
“The race should have been (Buescher’s) anyway. The caution at the end … It was a second chance at life for us there at the end.”
The Pocono maneuver that propelled Hamlin to victory had been the topic of the day for a good week leading up to Sunday’s Richmond race. Hamlin found himself in the unusual situation of being booed during pre-race activities at what’s considered a hometown track, not far from his native Chesterfield, Virginia, just down the road. One fan’s harangue was punctuated with “I know you can hear me, Denny!” ringing out from the Turn 1 stands awkwardly during the quiet, solemn pause between the pre-race invocation and national anthem.
The move was also on the mind of Buescher’s veteran crew chief Scott Graves, who told his driver over the No. 17 team radio, “Don‘t let the 11 do to you what he did to Larson,” before Sunday’s final restart. Graves smiled in admitting he was “probably being a little dramatic at that point” but also acknowledging his driver’s vulnerability had he selected the outside lane.
WATCH: Denny Hamlin breaks down final restart
As for the two Pocono protagonists, Hamlin excelled in a bid for his fifth Cup Series triumph at Richmond, while Larson and the rest of his Hendrick Motorsports mates struggled to find pace. Larson finished last on the lead lap in 19th place, but not before he gave Hamlin a slight nudge with 72 laps remaining, not long after a change for fresher tires.
Asked if that contact signified ‘message delivered’ or was emblematic of any new rules of engagement between the two, Larson said the move was hatched out of necessity and urgency.
“I mean, I’m just trying to maximize my time and they were two-wide in front of me and there was a little bit of a hole, and I shot through the hole,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “So just based off the kind of strategy we were on and trying to do what we could to, like I said, maximize the strategy of being on one stop, I just couldn’t waste any time.”
Hamlin’s side of their collision was even more plainspoken in his post-race availability.
“He was having a tough day and we were racing up front for a win,” Hamlin said. “It‘s all good on my end, for sure.”
