By: Ajeng Cahyaningtyas, Staff Writer
Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway was Denny Hamlin’s day to earn a week off.
Yes, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will still need to race next week at Bristol Motor Speedway, but he will do so without worrying about elimination. The veteran grabbed a powerful victory on Sunday to advance himself into the round of 12 in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
“My team did what they kind of didn’t do last week, which is have a nice, solid day on pit road, no mistakes,” Hamlin said. “Some other guys had some issues. That allowed us to capitalize and win the race.
“That’s what NASCAR has become now. It’s such an execution race. Who of the five fast contenders week in, week out, which one of them is going to stub their toe?”
Teammate Chase Briscoe was one playoff guy who did stub his toe, turning Daniel Suarez into the wall in Stage 2 before having a slow pit stop set him further back in the field.
Still, the Southern 500 winner rallied back to finish second. The result was his 12th top-five in his first year with JGR.
“That just shows how fast our Bass Pro Shops Toyota was,” Briscoe said. “I felt like if we never had to go to the back two or three different times – if I could have just maintained control of the race, I definitely felt like we had the car to beat. Wish it would have been us.
“It would have been cool to win the 200th race for Toyota, but it is crazy what a year can make, to be disappointed with second place says a lot. Congrats to Denny (Hamlin), Coach (Joe Gibbs, owner and founder, Joe Gibbs Racing) and congrats to Toyota as well on 200.”
Chase Elliott bounced back from a lackluster Round 1 of the playoffs to finish third at WWTR. He enters Bristol now 28 points above the cutline.
“I thought we were really good at times; certainly more competitive than we’ve been in a minute,” Elliott said. “It was a lot of fun to be up in the mix. We just needed a little bit more there at the end, but we were way, way better than we’ve been here lately, so that’s nice.”
Ryan Blaney overcame a spin after contact from Kyle Larson to finish fourth. Joey Logano rounded out the top five.
Austin Cindric leaves WWTR as the man on the hotseat, sitting as the 12th driver on the playoff grid. Austin Dillon is now 11 points behind the Talladega winner while Shane Van Gisbergen is back 15 points.
Alex Bowman and Josh Berry are in tougher shape to advance to the Round of 12, sitting 35 and 45 points in the red after difficult days on Sunday.