BRISTOL, Tenn. — In the first cutoff race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, Denny Hamlin showcased his mastery of Bristol Motor Speedway by earning the third win of his career on the famed high-banked, short track.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had the No. 11 FedEx Toyota in front of the field three times for 142 laps in the 500-lap battle as he scored his 51st career victory in the Cup Series. It was also Hamlin’s third win and 14th top 10 finish of the year.
“Man, everybody likes a winner, right?” a happy Hamlin said immediately after the race. “Can’t thank this whole FedEx team enough. They’ve really kicked ass this whole first round. Really amazing how our team has been. So happy about the way we’re running. Can’t wait to keep going. It’s our year. I just feel like we’ve got it all put together.
“We’ve got the speed every single type of race track. Nothing to stop us at this point.”
As for the boos from the crowd, Hamlin had a perfect response.
“A hater can’t stand a winner,” he said.
Hamlin was in the lead on Lap 359 and led for the next six laps before he pitted. That put Chris Buescher in front on Lap 365, but Hamlin regained the lead on Lap 366 and never looked back. He led the final 135 laps.
“It’s no secret, my favorite race, what a fantastic atmosphere,” Hamlin’s crew chief Chris Gabehart said.
Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota defeated Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet by 2.437 seconds.
Pole winner Christopher Bell, who won both stages, was third in the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing followed by Chris Buescher’s No. 17 BuildSubmarines.com Ford for RFK Racing.
Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing rounded out the top five in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota.
“I’m really, really proud of Ty,” said his team owner and grandfather Joe Gibbs. “We are proud of what he has done so far. I’m very proud of our teams. Chris and Denny, that car has been as good as any three races we have had. We were able to get the win tonight. It was a thrill for us. We worked so hard. So much can happen. We love coming here.
“It’s one of the showcase places for our sport and we appreciate the win tonight.”
Logano, Harvick, Stenhouse & McDowell Eliminated
This was as much a story about the drivers that didn’t advance into the Round of 12 as it was about Hamlin’s victory.
The drivers that won’t advance include some of NASCAR’s biggest names — reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick, this year’s Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and this year’s winner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Michael McDowell.
Logano became the first reigning Cup Series champion to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
He was involved in the first big crash of the race. Corey LaJoie’s car was turned around on the backstretch after he ran into the back of Erik Jones. It drifted across the straight, hit the end of the pit wall and drifted back up the race track in front of Logano’s No. 22 Ford and Ryan Newman.
Logano’s lower control arm was broken, and the crew told him, “It’s done.”
Logano drove the car behind pit wall and the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series champion was out of the race and out of the playoffs.
He finished 34th in the 36-car field.
“Obviously, it’s a real bummer,” Logano said afterwards. “You get out of the race like that and you’re behind the wall and you’re in denial for a minute. You don’t want to believe that it happened and you want to think that it’s fixable, but the car was tore up too bad.”
Harvick finished 29th in the No. 4 Gearwrench Ford.
“We’ve been like that all year,” Harvick said. “We’ve been hit or miss. Tonight we just missed by a mile.”
Stenhouse finished 10th, but it wasn’t enough to stave off elimination.
McDowell had probably the best short track race of his career as the driver of the No. 34 Love’s/Delo Ford finished sixth. But it was too little, too late for this year’s winner of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Tonight, it wasn’t enough,” McDowell said. “We were in a must-win situation. Still proud of everyone at Front Row Motorsports. Not quite fast enough to run with the top two or three guys, but pretty good. Those first two races just killed us, put us so far behind. This is a learning experience. It’s a young group. We didn’t do what we wanted to do here in these playoffs.
“I think we showed speed, showed that we could do it. We’ll learn from this, get ready for next year. Still have a lot to fight for this year, too. Not the run we needed to have tonight, but still a good performance. Really proud of everybody.”
Bubba Wallace was the driver to advance into the Round of 12 with a 14th-place finish in the No. 23 Columbia Sportswear Toyota with team owner Michael Jordan on top of the pit box. Wallace was emotional when he climbed out of his car on pit road.
Unfortunately, some of the fans in the crowd booed him for his accomplishment.
“Good, I love that (expletive) right there. Counting us out,” Wallace fired back referring to the boos of the crowd. “Like Coco Gauff said, all they’re doing is adding fuel to the fire. I love it.”
But this was a chance for him to celebrate his accomplishment of advancing into the second round of the playoffs.
“I love where I’m at with this team,” Wallace said. “Wish my mom, dad, sister were here to celebrate with me. I mean, a career year. Just got to keep it going. Appreciate all the partners involved. Columbia has done great when they’re on the car. Hated it for them last week. I’m mentally exhausted. I’m wore out. Gave it our all there. Battled hard and executed. That’s what you got to do.
“We know next week’s a reset. We just got to go out and have some fun, work our asses off. Thank you to the ones that believe in me. Keep it going. Yeah, on to next week.”