Denny Hamlin wins NASCAR’s first Chase race

Sunday’s MyAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway was just two laps old and Denny Hamlin had already blown a tire and was contemplating worst-case scenarios.

Some way to begin NASCAR’s Chase, huh?

“I was thinking seventh place,” said Hamlin, whose Toyota spun and hit the wall after his tire went down. “A top-10 finish would be a good comeback for this kind of day.”

Hamlin did much better than that, rallying from a lap down and winning the first race in the playoffs, clinching a spot in the second stage of the Chase. Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards was second, with Kurt Busch finishing third and Ryan Newman fourth.

It wasn’t until a late restart, and a decision not to pit, that Hamlin was able to move into position for his third win of the season. He also did so while continuing to race with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury he suffered while playing basketball two weeks ago. Hamlin, who has finished sixth at Richmond in his first race with the injury, will have surgery on the knee when the season is over.

“We obviously came back from adversity and did a lot of great things throughout the day, with the exception of lap two,” said Hamlin.

The key for Hamlin was not to panic, even after going a lap down and then patiently enduring a 116-green flag stretch (the longest of the season).

“I thought we were still going to be fine,” he said. “I chose not to go fast. I knew we were making a decision to go a lap down by making sure we preserved the car when I spun out.

“But I thought we’d have a caution in 10, 15 laps. I didn’t imagine it going another (116) laps and putting so many cars one lap down. That was a challenge for us, but we stayed really, really calm.

“I don’t know what it was, but I felt calm all day even though we were in a really bad position up until 90 to go. I think it’s just that calmness allows you to make better decisions, and we made great decisions at the end of the day.”

The biggest and best decision for Hamlin was one he made for himself. He told crew chief Dave Rogers he didn’t want to pit after a caution with five laps left. Starting on the second row, he passed Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon and ended up winning by easily over Edwards.

The bigger issue for Hamlin, however, is the Chase. He’s part of a Joe Gibbs Racing team that turned into a juggernaut over the summer, winning 10 times in the past 16 races. JGR’s three other drivers all finished in the top 10: Edwards (second), Matt Kenseth (fifth) and Kyle Busch (seventh).

A win in the Chase automatically advances a driver into the next round. But that doesn’t mean Hamlin and his team won’t keep working to win races, even if they don’t need victories next week at New Hampshire or at Dover in two weeks.

They’ll be wary, knowing that things can change in each stage. Defending champion Kevin Harvick is the best example of that. He finished 42nd Sunday after a tire blew on his Chevy and believes he is in a must-win situation at either New Hampshire or Dover.

“It doesn’t change our strategy,” said Dave Rogers, Hamlin’s crew chief. “We’re going to try to carry as much momentum into the Chase as possible. It definitely opens up some doors. Anything can happen in these races.

“We saw (Harvick’s) car get torn up today. He was fast. So we have a ‘mulligan.’ If we have a problem the next two weeks, it doesn’t matter. But we’re still going to go to (News Hampshire) and Dover and try to lead laps and contend for the win. We just have a little less pressure on us than the other guys have.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Denny Hamlin wins NASCAR’s first Chase race."