Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Denny Hamlin went to victory lane in the XFINITY Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway after leading 76 laps, but the win didn’t come easy following a late pit road penalty.
Erik Jones started on the pole with his teammate Daniel Suarez starting alongside in second. Jones led the first 14 laps of the day before his other teammate Denny Hamlin drove around him for the lead.
The old NASCAR saying ‘cautions breed cautions’ rang true today. The first of eight cautions in the 200-lap race came out on Lap 13 for Cody Ware who spun his car into the inside wall. The damage done was enough for Ware to take his No. 15 Ford behind the wall and end his day. Ware would finish 38th.
The second caution of the day on Lap 24 turned out to be the game changer. Oil being dropped on track by Ray Black, Jr. caused several of the front runners to lose control, including Jones and Suarez. Jones hit a pitch of oil in turn three, and smacked the inside wall, while Suarez went for a lazy spin, collecting Elliott Sadler. All three of those drivers suffered damage while running inside the top-six, and none were able to fully recover throughout the day.
By the time Lap 65 hit, the fifth caution had flown for a spin by Ryan Reed.
After the Reed caution, the race stayed green allowing for drivers to show what their cars were made of on the long run. One of those drivers was Kyle Larson who made his way around Hamlin for the lead. Larson’s lead was short lived, however, when it was time for green flag pit stops beginning with about 90 to go. Hamlin decided to short pit in order to force Larson’s hand. The short pitting decision proved to be a good one for Hamlin at the time, who would cycle out to a two-second lead over the No. 42 until a caution just a few laps later for debris on pit road.
When the race restarted, Hamlin led Larson, but a good restart by Joey Logano propelled him to the lead for the first time of the day over the No. 18. A wedge adjustment on the last restart for Hamlin began to affect the handling of the No. 18, and he fell in the clutches of Larson and Ryan Blaney, dropping Hamlin to fourth before the next caution.
Kyle Larson led the field off pit road with 40 to go, but the dominant car driven by Denny Hamlin was plagued by an uncontrolled tire penalty that would relegate the driver of the No. 18 back to 13th on what would turn out to be the next to last restart.
With just two laps to go, it seemed like Larson had the win wrapped up with Logano running second until the caution came out yet again for Erik Jones pancaking the wall. The rookie who had a less than stellar day after the early wreck cut down a tire, and was forced to take his No. 20 behind the wall. He would finish 31st. The final caution brought Denny Hamlin back into the picture as he drove his way back up to fourth following the penalty. Now, it became decision time – to pit or not to pit? And if you do pit, do you take two tires, or four? The two leading cars of Larson and Logano opted to pit, while Blaney and Hamlin brought everyone else down with them on pit road. Austin Dillon, Cole Custer and Justin Allgaier took two, while Hamlin took four tires.
Larson decided to take the inside as he led the field down on the final overtime restart with just two laps to go. A fierce battle between Larson and Logano on the restart brought Denny Hamlin from sixth on the restart back into the picture. Logano took the lead from Larson, and took the white flag, but he had Hamlin in his mirrors. Hamlin got to the inside of Logano in turns one and two, and grabbed the lead from the Team Penske driver. Larson got a big run on Hamlin on the backstretch, but it was to no avail as he would hit the wall on trying to pass Hamlin and finish in sixth. Hamlin went on to win his 15th career NASCAR XFINITY Series race, and first at Charlotte.
Austin Dillon finished second followed by Joey Logano, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Kyle Larson, Brandon Jones, Ty Dillon, Brennan Poole and Brendan Gaughan.
Daniel Suarez was able to rebound from his early woes and run-ins with the wall to finish on the lead lap in 12th. Despite running into issues during the day, Suarez took the points lead from Elliott Sadler who finished 28th after being collected by Suarez in an early caution.
Ryan Blaney, who ran inside the top-five for most of the day, cut a tire down with just four laps to go and finished 16th.
The next race for the XFINITY Series will be next weekend where the series will make its inaugural visit to Pocono Raceway in the Pocono Green 250.
