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Denny Hamlin Wins Mid-Week NASCAR Cup Series Race At Darlington

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Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

DARLINGTON, SC (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Denny Hamlin grabbed his second win of 2020 Wednesday night winning the rain-shortened Toyota 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota crossed the finish line under caution ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, who finished 2nd in the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota.

The win was the 39th career NASCAR Cup Series victory for Hamlin, who started 16th and led only once for 12-laps.

“We made really good adjustments between the two races, really worked hard to get our car a little bit better than what it was here on Sunday,” said Hamlin.  “I just love the racetrack.  It’s one of my favorites, certainly in my top two or three.  I think it’s a driver’s racetrack.”

Busch finished second but not without controversy.  Busch and Hamlin were racing for the lead following a late restart when Chase Elliott, running third, chose to follow Hamlin on the high-side of the race track with Kevin Harvick in close pursuit.  Busch tried to squeeze up into line between the No. 9 Chevy and the No. 4 Ford, but he did not have enough room and ended up clipping Elliott’s left rear, turning NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver and sending him into the inside wall and to a 39th place finish.

Three Rivers Karting

“If you get stuck on the bottom, you’re screwed, going to lose a bunch of positions,” said Hamlin.  “You have to be on the top or else you’re screwed, unless somebody messes up. It’s just a tough track when it comes to the restarts.”

Busch, who drove for Hendrick Motorsports and Crew Chief Alan Gustafson when he broke into the Cup Series as a rookie, took to Twitter after the race to say he simply made a mistake.

Stewart Haas Racing’s Harvick finished third in the No. 4 Mustang followed by Team Penske‘s Brad Keselowski in the No. 2 Pirtek Mustang.  Hamlin and Busch’s teammate Eric Jones rounded out the Top 5.

Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Kurt Busch finished 15th in the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet and his teammate Matt Kenseth finished 30th after cutting a tire and brining out a caution on Lap 180.  Busch finished third and Kenseth 10th this past Sunday.

The weather and shorter distance may have had something to do with a sense of urgency there seemed to be from the drop of the green flag as the race featured 17-lead changes among 13-drivers.  The race was slowed by 11-caution flags for 54-laps.

The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 24th.

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NASCAR

Kyle Busch takes NASCAR Cup Series win in California

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FONTANA, CA (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – The pairing of Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing is paying dividends as two races into their partnership, they were celebrating victory at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.  Busch beat Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott by ?.?-seconds to pick up his ??-career Cup Series victory and the ?? of his NASCAR career.

“I felt like there was going to be a little bit of a learning experience, a little bit of a growth pattern, but also on the flipside of that, I always just kind of looked back and watched some of their results and success that they had last year with Austin,” explained Busch. “He ran second here last year, and Reddick was super, super fast. They were fast at the Clash before they broke, the 8 car was.”

Busch said the transition to a new team has been good.

“It’s just been really, really cool, and it’s been a great piece of — we’re making history, right, but a great piece of opportunity to go out there and continue to win races at a new team with RCR, so I can’t say enough about Austin giving me a call, first and foremost, but then Richard and Judy giving me this opportunity to go out here and race for wins.”

Elliott was happy for his manufacturer teammate and former Champ and to get a finish after getting crashed out of the Daytona 500.

Three Rivers Karting

“Congratulations to Kyle,” said Elliott. “For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them. Obviously I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing. Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet for just sticking with it and sticking with each other.  Looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”

Ross Chastain, who led a race high 92-laps, finished third in the No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.

“Our balance was building loose most of the day, so I thought we did everything right,” said Chatain. “We kept up with it. It would just feel pretty loose late in the runs, and at times it was enough, and at times they got way better.”

The NASCAR Cup Series moves on to Las Vegas for the Pennzoil 400 March 5th.

 

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins Daytona 500 in two overtimes

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DAYTONA, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Ricky Stenhouse Jr was leading NASCAR Cup Series Champion Joey Logano when a spinning Kyle Larson brought out the final caution of the day, giving Stenhouse the Daytona 500 win in double-overtime.

Stenhouse and Logano were battling for the lead on Lap 212 when contact from Aric Almirola’s Ford started Travis Pastrana’s Toyota spinning in Turn 2. Pastrana’s Camry clipped Larson Chevrolet and set it rocketing into the outside wall.  NASCAR officials reviewed the timing and scoring loops to verify Stenhouse was the winner.

“The 22 had a huge run,” explained Stenhouse. “Got to my outside. Kyle had a huge run and he kind of shipped the middle, and then I looked in my mirror and here comes Christopher and gave me a big shot down the short chute there into 1 caution and got out front enough for when the caution came out.
So everything played out perfectly for us at the end of that.”

Three Rivers Karting

“Second is the worst, man,” lamented Logano.  “You’re so close. Leading the white flag lap there, I was up front. Kyle gave me a good push and, yeah, you’re watching in the mirror and you’re three wide across there. I felt like the three wide was going a hurt a lane; looked like Kyle was getting pushed ahead, and then Ricky started getting pushed ahead.”

“If you would have told me pre-race I was going to run third, I would have jumped up and down and been smiling ear to ear, which I am very happy and very, very thankful that I could get this Rheem and DeWalt Camry a good solid finish,” said Bell.  “But man, just so close to a crown jewel. I feel like if it would have stayed green I would have been on offense, and obviously who knows. But very proud and thankful to be here and Joe Gibbs Racing, and happy for Ricky. That’s really cool. Very, very happy for Ricky.”

The next NASCAR Cup Series race is Sunday, February 26 at Auto Club Raceway in Fontana, California.

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Austin Hill wins his second straight NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona

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DAYTONA, FL (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Austin Hill won his second-straight NASCAR Xfinity Series season-opening race on Saturday, narrowly beating John Hunter Nemechek and Justin Allgaier after NASCAR officials reviewed the tape following Sam Mayer’s caution.

“As soon as the caution lights came on, I thought I had it, but it was so close,” said Hill. “To get back-to-back here at Daytona, it’s really special. That’s three wins for me now, two in the Xfinity, one in the truck here. We came from the back two different times.  I hope everyone enjoyed it. It was such a blast. I had so much fun.”

Three Rivers Karting

“I’ve been short my whole life, so I guess it’s just fitting,” joked Allgaier. “But really proud of everybody at JR Motorsports. Our Chevy Camaros tonight were absolutely blazing fast.  Obviously, I’m glad Sam is OK. He had a heck of a run there at the end.”

NASCAR Xfinity Daytona

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