Hamlin's good day at Texas not good enough
Send a link to a friend
[November 06, 2017]
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Distributed by The Sports Xchange
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Denny Hamlin did almost everything right on
Sunday afternoon.
Despite his best efforts, however, the driver of the No. 11 Joe
Gibbs Racing Toyota left Texas Motor Speedway in a good-sized hole.
Hamlin started Sunday's AAA Texas 500 from the front row beside pole
winner Kurt Busch. He led the first 46 laps and 65 overall.
Hamlin was in the top spot for the final restart on Lap 289 and
rolled home in third place behind winner Kevin Harvick and runner-up
Martin Truex Jr., scoring 47 points for his efforts.
But with Harvick and Truex clinching spots in the Nov. 19
Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and with Kyle Busch,
Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate having done the same last week at
Martinsville, Hamlin has two options as the Monster Energy NASCAR
Cup Series heads to Phoenix for next Sunday's final event in the
Playoff's Round of 8.
If Hamlin hopes to compete for a title at Homestead, he must win the
race or make up a 19-point deficit to fourth-place Brad Keselowski.

"Yeah, we probably need to win, most likely, which is amazing,"
Hamlin said. "It's the second year in a row, the third round, where
I average inside a top five-finish, and that ain't going to be good
enough. It needs to be better.
"But it's about winning races. That's what we'll go next week and
try to do."
Keselowski recovers nicely to stay above playoff cut line
In an instant, Brad Keselowski was a lap down.
Moments after the start of Sunday's AAA Texas 500, before the lead
drivers had completed the first two corners, Kyle Busch's Toyota
washed up the track into Keselowski's Ford and cut a tire on the
Team Penske machine.
The resulting unscheduled pit stop left Keselowski a lap down, but
he and the team kept their heads on straight. Keselowski got the lap
back under the second caution as the highest-scored lapped car, and
by the end of the second stage he was 14th.
Throughout the rest of the race, Keselowski gained ground. On Lap
334, he took the checkered flag in fifth place to hold fourth in the
series standings and build a 19-point edge over Denny Hamlin in
fifth.
Next Sunday at Phoenix, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Playoffs will be cut from eight drivers to four, and Keselowski
already has a leg up on the final available spot in the Championship
4 round.
"Something happened on Lap 1, and basically we started the race last
and a lap-and-a-half down," Keselowski said. "That cost us a bunch
of stage points, but we rallied with a solid effort to get back to
fifth. I'm happy for that."
Happy, but not overly confident with the 19-point margin.
[to top of second column] |

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup
Series driver Denny Hamlin (11) finishes in third place in the AAA
Texas 500 race at Texas Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Jerome
Miron-USA TODAY Sports

"We'll take it," Keselowski said. "I still want more. I hate to give
up those stage points. Nineteen points isn't terrible for a cushion.
"We'll need to go and have a solid race at Phoenix next week and
hope none of the other guys win. It's doable, but it's going to be a
nail-biter next week for sure."
Johnson endures crushing day
Jimmie Johnson has seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
championships. He has seven victories at Texas Motor Speedway.
None of that mattered in Sunday's AAA Texas 500 when Johnson's race
-- and likely his hopes for a record eighth title -- went south in a
hurry.
On Lap 65 of 334, after the first round of green-flag pit stops,
Johnson brought his car back to pit road because of a vibration. He
lost two laps in the process.
Rather than take a wave-around under caution at the end of the first
stage, crew chief Chad Knaus called Johnson to pit road, and he
remained two laps down. On Lap 131, he lost another circuit on the
track when race leader Kyle Larson passed him.
Johnson finished 27th, three laps down, and dropped to eighth in the
series standings, 51 points behind Brad Keselowski in fourth.
Nothing short of a win next Sunday at Phoenix will land Johnson a
spot in the Championship 4 finale at Homestead.
"We've got to figure something out," Johnson said. "Kansas (the
Round of 12 finale) was a lot like this. It was just extremely
difficult to drive the car and carry entry speed. And then we had a
loose wheel and then contact on a restart. We started off in a hole
and just kept digging a deeper one as we went.

"I'm definitely disappointed. And I honestly just feel bad for my
team. These guys are working so hard. And to work this hard and not
see any speed go back in the car and have bad results, as the last
three weeks have been, is pretty disappointing."
-----------------------------------------------
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |