Denny Hamlin took his final lead in the Federated Auto Parts 400 with 79 laps remaining Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway and kept the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in front through 6 subsequent restarts, closing the regular season with his 3rd victory of the year and securing the #3 seed in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup that opens next weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Hamlin’s margin of victory over runner-up Kyle Larson was six-tenths of a second. Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 193 laps and nabbed 3rd place with Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick completing the top 5.
Hamlin started from the pole and led 189 laps to give JGR a season sweep on the three-quarter-mile Fairgrounds oval. Carl Edwards was victorious in April but finished 32nd in his bid for back-to-back wins there.
With The Chase Grid now filled, championship points have been reset. Keselowski and Kyle Busch are tied at the top by virtue of their 4 victories during the regular season. Busch gets the #1 seed by winning the tiebreaker, which is based on 2nd place finishes. He has three, Keselowski one. With two wins this year, Harvick – the regular-season points leader – holds the #4 seed.
The four drivers who went into the weekend holding the final 4 provisional spots in the Chase – Chris Buescher, rookie Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray – came out of the weekend with their post-season tickets punched after finishing among the top 25 in the 40-car field.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, NC
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