Denny Hamlin Continues Hot Streak With Dominant Michigan Win
The 2010 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan International Speedway featured another dominating performance by Denny Hamlin. Hamlin overcame a problem leaving pit road and came back to pick up his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup series win of 2010.
Qualifying
The Busch brothers continued their strong 2010 with older brother Kurt putting his Penske Dodge on the pole. Jamie McMurray was second fastest in qualifying.
Row number two was made up of Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne. Jeff Burton rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Jamie McMurray drove it hard into turn one and lead the first lap over Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson. McMurray's lead was short lived as Kurt Busch got around him for the lead in turn one of the second lap.
Kurt continued to lead the rest of the early going.
Storylines
Denny Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team are on an amazing hot streak in 2010. Today was Denny Hamlin's second win in a row and his fifth in the last ten NASCAR Sprint Cup events.
Shortly before the halfway point Denny Hamlin had trouble leaving pit road when he lost fuel pressure and had trouble getting up to speed. Hamlin fell back to fourth but it didn't take long for him to recover.
Denny Hamlin went on to lead the most laps and make a mockery of the competition on his way to another convincing victory.
Denny Hamlin leads all drivers in wins and top fives but currently sits third in points behind the incredibly consistent Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
Is this the year that Denny Hamlin breaks through with a Championship? If he can put together ten races at the end of the season like these most recent ten races then he will be a strong contender for the Cup.
Chasing The Checkers
The final restart came with fourteen laps remaining. Denny Hamlin had the lead over Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle.
Hamlin got a strong restart and maintained the lead. Even though Kasey Kahne tried to apply some pressure this one was never in doubt and Denny Hamlin picked up another 2010 victory.
Top Ten
- Denny Hamlin
- Kasey Kahne
- Kurt Busch
- Jeff Gordon
- Tony Stewart
- Jimmie Johnson
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Jeff Burton
- Greg Biffle
- Joey Logano
The Points
2010 Point leaders Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch gave up some of their lead today as they finished 19th and 20th in today's race. Denny Hamlin closed the gap but remains third in the points. Hamlin is now just 47 points out of the lead.
At the opposite end of the top twelve Clint Bowyer gave back the twelfth place position that he gained last week. Tony Stewart has replaced him in top twelve.
The top twelve are now:
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Busch -22
- Denny Hamlin -47
- Kurt Busch -118
- Matt Kenseth -150
- Jimmie Johnson -170
- Jeff Gordon -182
- Jeff Burton -224
- Greg Biffle -304
- Carl Edwards -313
- Tony Stewart -329
- Mark Martin -343
Source...