RICHMOND, Va. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America photo —
Virginia’s favorite son made his home state proud on Saturday night — and continued Joe Gibbs Racing’s NASCAR XFINITY Series dominance of the Richmond International Raceway.
Commonwealth native Denny Hamlin roared from the pole into the lead on the opening lap of Saturday’s ToyotaCare 250 — and from there, he laid a beating on the rest of the field, leading 248 of the 250 laps en route to his 12th career NXS victory, third at Richmond and first since 2011, when he also won the Richmond spring race.
The win was also the 100th for Toyota as a manufacturer in the NASCAR XFINITY Series.
“The 100th XFINITY win for Toyota — that’s a big one,” Hamlin said in Victory Lane. “I was able to get the 100th [NASCAR Sprint] Cup win at Loudon a few years ago for those guys and JGR. This is a big win for everyone. I’m glad to be working with Wheels again (crew chief Mike Wheeler). He put a rocket under us tonight.”
The only two laps that spoiled Hamlin’s perfect night were lap 154 — when Brian Scott divebombed the Hisense Toyota off of turn four to lead by two one-thousandths (0.002) of a second at the start-finish line — and lap 226, when Elliott Sadler stayed out to try and stretch his fuel to the finish, but was blown past by Hamlin the next lap.
Hamlin’s performance came on the heels of Joey Logano’s pummeling of the field last weekend in Bristol, where the Team Penske driver led all 300 laps en route to the win. Logano finished a distant second, and was able to halfheartedly joke about the dominance of the No. 20 after the race.
“I know what it feels like to be on the other end of the butt-whipping now,” Logano said after the race. “It’s not as much fun from this side. But congrats to them. They deserved it, obviously. We didn’t have a shot.”
“He was so fast — we had nothing for him. We had a second-place car. That’s where it was, just second place.”
The gap from first to second was 3.719 seconds at the checkered flag, but was as large as six and a half seconds before Hamlin made his final pit stop with 25 laps to go.
The first half of the event was only slowed by caution twice, at lap 49 for debris and lap 110 when Jimmy Weller tagged the wall coming off of turn two — but was under the second caution when tragedy nearly struck on the pit lane.
A massive fire broke out after a fuel spill in Brendan Gaughan’s pit erupted into a towering inferno at the rear of the car, engulfing rear tire changer Anthony O’Brien — who rushed behind the wall to be tended to by a fire-worker on the scene. O’Brien was awake and alert, but he, Gaughan’s fueler Josh Wittman and Clifford Turner, a crew member from Eric McClure’s team, were all taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation as a result of the incident.
Following the third caution at lap 145 for Ross Chastain crashing in turn two, the race went green the rest of the way — and besides Scott’s brief challenge on the restart, Hamlin drove off into the Virginia night.
Series regular Regan Smith was third, followed by Texas winner Erik Jones and defending series champion Chase Elliott.
Daniel Suarez came home sixth to give JGR three cars in the top six at the finish, followed by Scott and Austin Dillon, who was the last car on the lead lap in eighth.
New series points leader Ty Dillon came home ninth and took the lead in the title fight by eight markers over Elliott, while former co-leader Chris Buescher dropped to third in the standings after finishing 20th.
Landon Cassill rounded out the top ten in a banner performance for his JD Motorsports team.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series returns to competition on Saturday, May 2 for the Winn-Dixie 300 from Talladega Superspeedway.
RESULTS: NASCAR XFINITY Series; ToyotaCare 250; Richmond International Speedway; April 24, 2015
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Regan Smith
- Erik Jones
- Chase Elliott
- Daniel Suarez
- Brian Scott
- Austin Dillon
- Ty Dillon
- Landon Cassill
- Brendan Gaughan
- Darrell Wallace Jr.
- Brennan Poole
- Jeremy Clements
- Aric Almirola
- Elliott Sadler
- Ross Chastain
- Kevin Harvick
- J.J. Yeley
- Chris Buescher
- Ryan Reed
- Harrison Rhodes
- Mike Bliss
- Blake Koch
- Cale Conley
- Joey Gase
- Dakoda Armstrong
- Dylan Lupton
- David Starr
- Brandon Gdovic
- Ryan Sieg
- Peyton Sellers
- Jimmy Weller
- Carlos Contreras
- Derrike Cope
- Eric McClure
- Carl Long
- Timmy Hill
- Mike Harmon
- Jeff Green
