Denny Hamlin celebrates in victory lane after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.FORT WORTH, Texas – Denny Hamlin’s car was so fast in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was able to win despite two penalties on pit road and some other problems during green-flag conditions.
While Hamlin was reviewing all that had happened, crew chief Chris Gabehart leaned forward and said, “I think you passed 327 cars by my count, but maybe not.”
Hamlin, who missed the entry to pit road once and also ran out of fuel during the race, did do a lot of passing to get to victory lane. He led the final 12 laps and 45 overall to overcome those miscues and the penalties – one when he exited pit road too fast early in the race and another for a debatable tire violation against his team during a pit stop just past the halfway point.
“I was just beating my head against the steering wheel thinking, ‘Man, we’re going to finish bad with a really fast race car,'” Hamlin said. “We just kept digging, and Chris kept doing a good job encouraging us (that) we had a long way to go. We kept passing cars and passing cars.”
Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry finished more than 2.7 seconds ahead of second-place Clint Bowyer in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 Ford Mustang. The 334-lap race at the 1.5-mile track, with only three cautions outside the two stage stoppages, featured 27 lead changes among 13 drivers.