LDN - Sports

Despite back pain, Hamlin shines at Watkins Glen

[August 09, 2016] By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange

One way to get Denny Hamlin to victory lane is to have him play hurt. Suffering from back spasms, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver finally won his first road course victory in the Sprint Cup at Watkins Glen, succeeding where teammates Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch squandered opportunities.

Last year, despite suffering from a torn ligament in a knee injured in a basketball game, Hamlin won the first round of the Chase at the Chicagoland Speedway.

Even when he broke his back in a crash at the Auto Club Speedway in 2013 and missed four races, Hamlin managed to come back and win the season finale at the Homestead-Miami Speedway to sustain his streak of at least one win every season since joining the Sprint Cup full time in 2006.

Another way to get Hamlin fired up is to suggest he might have to leave the Gibbs team, which continues to be the dominant force in the Sprint Cup with 10 wins this year and where Hamlin has all 28 of his career wins. Although it was subsequently extended through 2017, Hamlin entered 2016 as a contract year and won the Daytona 500 with a brilliant move on the final lap.

In June, Hamlin lost at the Sonoma Raceway on the last lap to Tony Stewart, losing the lead in the final corner while in pursuit of that elusive road course win. This time, he made the right moves at the right time and it was Busch and Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski who overcooked corners, handing the opportunity to Hamlin.

"I felt like Sonoma was a heartbreak to go to the last corner and lose the race out there on a road course," said team owner Joe Gibbs. "Then to bounce back and come back here and race like he did today, they were big hitters up front that were great road racers. For him to come out on top here, I think that says a lot about Denny."

Hamlin took the lead when front row starters Busch and Keselowski ran wide at Turn 1 on a restart with 10 laps to go. Initially, it appeared that Hamlin might not have been able to start the race due to the back spasms, apparently a holdover from his head-on meeting with the wall inside Turn 4 at the Auto Club in 2013, which had no SAFER barriers at the time.

"I got the text this morning when he woke up," said crew chief Mike Wheeler. "He was in trouble. He said it. It was like, you know, not something you really want to hear (the morning of the race). You know you got good cars, good teammates, track position to start.

"But end of the day I know (Denny) mans up when he needs to. I almost want to say if he knew he didn't have a winning car, he might do something different. But I know he definitely gets that attitude going in the car when he has a winning car, can run up front and tough it out."

Race car drivers are always loathe to give up their cars. One of the few times anybody ever saw tears in the eyes of Dale Earnhardt Sr. was when he was forced to climb from his car for a relief driver at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1996 due to a broken collarbone and sternum. At Watkins Glen the following week, "The Intimidator" won the pole and finished sixth despite his painful injuries that were severely aggravated by the elevation changes and left and right turns on the road circuit.

Hamlin said he would not have gotten in the car had it been a practice day.

"No doubt if it was Friday or Saturday, no question I wouldn't have turned one lap today," he said. "It was by far the worst conditions I've ever had to drive in, over the knees, anything else. This was by far the worst pain-wise I've had to go through."

One of the question marks hanging over this season was where Erik Jones, the 20-year-old sensation from Michigan, was going to fit into the scheme at JGR, which put Hamlin on the hot seat among the team's four veteran drivers due to his contract situation. That question was answered on the morning of the race at the Glen when it was announced Jones would drive a second Toyota for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, which is in its first year as an affiliate with the Gibbs team.

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Due to the morning's announcement, Jones was standing by. Hamlin could have stepped aside for a relief driver, but chose to play hurt instead. That had to impress his team owner, a three-time Super Bowl winner as a head coach.

The race at the Glen often resembled a wild, wild West shootout due to its position on the calendar and the opportunities a road course presents for advancement into the Chase either by points or a victory. There were eight cautions and two red flags to clean up the damage. Ironically, the injured Hamlin was more careful on corner entry, didn't drive as hard, because he said his normal feel for the car was absent due to his back issues.

Hamlin concentrated on hitting his marks and took no chances. To take the lead, he just had to stay in line inside Turn 1 as Busch and Keselowski took each other off the track.

"It just seems like really over the last five years or so, the road courses have taken a turn to be more aggressive," Hamlin said. "I think it has a lot to do with the Chase format, guys seeing this as a-win-and-you're-in type format. It's your opportunity when they really don't have cars that are competitive on the other racetracks."

The finish was consistent with the rest of the race, run before a capacity crowd. Unlike Sonoma, where Hamlin went too deep in Turn 11 and allowed Stewart a chance to get inside for the victory, this time Hamlin tip-toed into the corners on the final laps of green. That allowed second-placed Martin Truex, Jr. and Keselowski to get close to the rear bumper of the No. 11 Toyota. But it was the latter two who had contact in the last corner, allowing Hamlin to escape with no challenge to his first road course victory after 384 starts.

"I think being a little defensive on those final couple laps, making sure I didn't pull a Sonoma, allowed them to get a little closer than where I was comfortable with," Hamlin said.

Hamlin was also a little slow on the pit road, which was a good thing. On a day where nine drivers were caught speeding due to the addition of extra timing lines on the pit road by NASCAR, Hamlin had no issues. This is the same guy who earlier this year scored six speeding penalties. One of those caught was pole winner Edwards, who led the first 25 laps before getting ticketed by the computers on the pit road.

Now 35, Hamlin had predicted multiple championships that have not come to pass. Last year, after advancing to the second round with a victory at Homestead, Hamlin and his team got mired in errors and never made it to the third round, probably one reason why Gibbs made a crew chief swap to Wheeler in order to let that bitter memory pass.

Hamlin came close in 2010 to beating Jimmie Johnson for the title, but he and his team blew it in the closing races under the original 10-race format. An errant move that damaged his car at Homestead ended Hamlin's chances that year after he was forced to start at the back and tried too hard to get through the field to catch Johnson.

At the Glen, a steady pace won the race. It may be Hamlin's year to follow the same routine to success in the postseason. Sunday, he said, "was a good sign of things to come."

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