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Denny Hamlin Overcomes Early Penalty to Win Cracker Barrel 400
Driver introductions…CHECK. Invocation…CHECK. National Anthem…Check. Then came the rain. Pit road was a sea of umbrellas prior to the prayer and anthem as drivers, crews, and guests were keeping dry as a light rain fell with hopes it would pass, however this would turn into a moderate steady rain that would fall over the track long enough to halt the start of the Cracker Barrel 400, originally slated to have cars rolling off of pit road and going green at 6:20 pm. Thanks to the lighter volume of rain that fell, the concrete surface, and modern track drying technology, NASCAR track crews were able to have the track ready for racing less than two hours after the original green flag time.
After an extended set of pace laps, polesitter Denny Hamlin took the lead at the drop of the green flag, well actually before the green even waved when he jumped the initial start of the race. Hamlin would be penalized and have to make a pass down pit road and would sunsequently cyle to last last place in the 38-car field. This in turn would hand the lead over to the No. 45 of Tyler Reddick, who would command the lead until pit stops commenced on lap 37 during the NASCAR mandated competion caution thrown on lap 35. Five drivers would trade their share of hte lead over the next 15 laps until the No. 5 of Kyle Larson took control of the field on lap 53 and would hold the lead position for the next 23 laps. Stage one would see two cautions flags wave before the stage brak caution at lap 90. During these cautions, Denny was quietly making his way back threw the field on his way forward to battle the leaders by midway through the race and once again find himself in the lead at lape 189.
With eleven laps left in the race after a relatively calm third stage [compared to the first 190 laps], the final cauton flag of the night waved for an incident involving the No. 17 car of Chris Buescher in turn-4. The final restart with four laps to go would generate som amazing back-and-forth passing among three teammates highlighted by a three-wide last-lap challenge for the win among three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas at the start/finish line under the white flag. Hamlin would come away from the battle with a 0.115 second victory over teammate Christopher Bell. Sunday night’s victory, the 62nd of his career, was not only a first for Hamlin at the Nashville oval but also a first for Toyota.
“The 20 and 19 were battling so hard on that first corner it just let me get to the inside of the 20 at the first corner after the restart and from there, side-by-side with the 20,” said Hamlin. “He [Bell] drove in so deep on that last lap into one that it just allowed me to barely clear off of two.”
“What an unbelievable day starting first, going to last and then back to first.” said Hamlin.
Sunday’s finish was the second runner-up result for Bell in as many weeks. As with his teammate Hamlin, Bell also recovered from an early race challenge when a pit stop miscue dropped him to 30th place for a restart just before the finish of Stage 1.
“It was great racing, I hope the fans enjoyed that,” Bell said. “Just disappointed in myself, disappointed for my team. We brought a great race car and I didn’t get the job done.”
Sunday night’s sell-out crowd was able to pay witness to close side-by-side racing, important strategy calls and just flat-out team speed ultimately necessary to finally settle a race that featured a race record 31 lead changes among a record 15 drivers. The night would be slowed by 11 cautions for 77 laps. Hamlin led a race high 57 laps, barely edging out Kyle Larson who led 56 on the night. Of the 15 leaders, nine different drivers led double digit laps.
Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr finished fourth in the No. 47 Chevrolet, wrapped in a special scheme paying tribute to the late Kyle Busch, followed by a career-best fifth-place effort by Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen who turned in one of his best flag-to-flag oval performances running among the top 10 all night. SVG would lead 12 laps on the night, the most laps he’s ever led on an oval track.
