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In a 500-lap race marred by heavy rubber wear
-- there was fear of teams needing more than their nine sets of
tires -- Hamlin made a pit stop during the race's longest
green-flag run, the final one, and topped Joe Gibbs Racing
teammate Martin Truex Jr. by 1.083 seconds for his 52nd career
win.
Hamlin also won last September's race at Bristol.
He preserved the tires on his No. 11 Camry XSE -- something he
said he was accustomed to.
"It's what I grew up doing here on the short tracks in the whole
mid-Atlantic, (racing) at South Boston, Martinsville and all
those tracks," said Hamlin, who led a race-high 163 laps in his
fourth career win at Bristol. "Once it became a tire management
race, I really liked our chances. Obviously, the veteran in
Martin knew how to do it as well."
Truex, who suffered a major slump in last year's playoff, scored
his first top-five finish in the past 17 races.
"Obviously, that's what I needed to have happen here at Bristol
to have a shot at a win," Truex said.
With only five cars on the lead lap, Brad Keselowski, Alex
Bowman and Kyle Larson finished the top five.
Ty Gibbs appeared to have the car to beat, led 137 laps and won
the first two stages, but his No. 54 JGR Toyota hit the wall
with about 70 laps left.
It was the 210th win for the Joe Gibbs organization and second
this season.
In Bristol's return to its concrete surface in the spring for
the first time since 2020, pole winner Ryan Blaney and fellow
front-row starter Josh Berry swapped the lead in the first 20
laps before Blaney's No. 12 Ford slipped a few spots and Hamlin
moved into first.
Blaney regained the point, but Gibbs, last year's Rookie of the
Year, powered past the Team Penske driver with six laps to go
and eventually claimed the first stage win of his career.
But before that happened, Hamlin and eight-time Bristol winner
Kyle Busch had flat tires with a few laps left in the segment,
forcing the race's fourth caution on Lap 123.
Teams soon discovered that rubber was a problematic issue, as
multiple tires showed excessive damage and sheer shredding when
removed from their cars.
When the second stage's 125-lap dash started, the segment took
an experimental tone as drivers tried to find the right balance
between high speed and tire preservation, with the average lap
time falling off by a second.
In an 11-lap sprint, Christopher Bell went door-to-door with
Joey Logano, and the No. 54 roared by Logano's Ford on the high
side with two laps to go en route to his second stage victory.
--Field Level Media
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