Denny Hamlin had the worst start, but the best finish in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday night.
Hamlin was handed pole position based on NASCAR’s metric after qualifying was rained out, but jumped the start and was handed a drive-through penalty that sent him to the back of the pack.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver then went to work making up spots as a messy race unfolded in front of him. Several cars suffered front brake failures on the hard braking track, while numerous multi-car accidents contributed to a total of 12 caution periods. Hamlin avoided trouble and worked his way up to 19th by the end of Stage 1 and finished Stage 2 in fifth.
His teammate Christopher Bell had the strongest car at the end of the race and was leading with 13 laps to go when Chris Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford’s brake failed and put him in the wall, which brought out the last yellow of the night.
That allowed Bell’s other teammate, Chase Briscoe, to catch up and line up next to him on the front row for the restart with four laps to go and Hamlin and Chase Elliott behind them on the second row.
The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas immediately pulled away from the pack to make it a three-car sprint to the finish. The trio entered the final lap three-wide with Hamlin on the inside and he was able to clear Bell coming out of Turn 2 and make it stick for the win. Briscoe held on for third ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Shane van Gisbergen. The win was Hamlins first at the 1.33-mile concrete oval.
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“We had a few where we were the best car this year and we didn’t win because of restarts. It felt really good to get one back that we certainly shouldn’t have on speed. The 20 [Bell] had us covered. I think he passed us about three or four times today. But I just learned from my mistakes earlier in the season and how I approach restarts. It really kind of started in the first corner. I was able to get, go to the bottom of the 20. I didn’t shift the car very well. He cleared but drove in really deep and allowed me to get beside him,” Hamlin said during his post-race press conference.
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“For the next two laps, I kept side drafting then trying to drive in deep enough to clear him, and I realized he was not going to let me clear him. So at that point, I knew we were not making optimum lap time and corners. So I learned from my mistakes, and on the final lap, I said I’m going to roll the bottom. He’s probably going to drive in really deep thinking that I’m going to drive in deep, but I’m going to switch it up on him and get a good run off instead, and it was good enough to clear him.”
The win was Hamlin’s second points race win of the season and 62nd of his carrer. It helped him retain his second place spot in the season standings as he made up ground on points leader Tyler Reddick, who finished sixth.
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