Denny Hamlin won for the first time this season, holding off Greg Biffle to claim Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway under caution. Since placing second in the season-opening Daytona 500, Hamlin had just one other top-10 finish (sixth at Bristol) in the first nine Sprint Cup Series races of the year. Biffle finished second, while Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top five. After starting 35th, Biffle forged his way to the front on Lap 57 and led a race-high 58 laps. Joey Logano, already a two-time winner this season, was also strong early, leading 25 of the first 52 laps. Logano was towed to the garage after being collected by a wreck on the 175th lap involving Jimmie Johnson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kurt Busch, David Ragan, Michael McDowell and Reed Sorenson were also involved. Early in the day, a three-wide battle for the lead resulted in Brad Keselowski wrecking onto the apron after a nudge from the No. 10 of Danica Patrick. Keselowski found a line in the middle and had just pulled ahead of Patrick past the start/finish line. He attempted to maneuver his No. 2 Ford into the low line heading into Turn 1 when the two cars made contact, sending Keselowski spinning wildly onto the oversized apron and bringing out the caution on Lap 14. Keselowski's car also touched off a 14-car wreck with 50 laps to go in the race. Frontrunners Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and pole-winner Brian Scott were among the drivers collected. Caution also waved for an incident involving Justin Allgaier on Lap 187 of 188, but since Hamlin had crossed the start-finish line entering Lap 188, he was declared the winner.
The Sprint Cup Series returns to the track Saturday night for the 5-Hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway. (NASCAR)
No comments:
Post a Comment