(Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)
BROOKLYN, Mich. — Denny Hamlin overcame a pit road miscue that set him back several positions in Stage 2 to salvage a third-place finish in Monday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Under caution on Lap 103, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver came down for tires and fuel in the fifth position but stalled his car upon exit. Hamlin fell to the back of the lead lap cars and finished the stage in 11th, surrendering track position and valuable stage points.
“I just stalled it and couldn’t get it refired,” he said. “Something with the ECU – just had to get it refired and cycled it there.
“Track position was king, we just never got to be up towards the front enough until the very end.”
Hamlin, who won his 50th career race two weeks ago, followed teammate Martin Truex Jr. by pitting on Lap 122 during the stage break while Chris Buescher stayed out and took the lead. He pitted again during the green flag cycle with just over 40 to go but needed a caution to get back in race-winning contention.
Truex and Buescher battled it out over the final 25 laps but Buescher prevailed for his second consecutive victory. Hamlin rounded out the podium several seconds off the pace.
“I thought we were really close with the 19 (Truex) I thought he got through traffic better than I did all day, and it looks like the 17 (Buescher) was pretty good too,” Hamlin explained. “That’s no shock – [Buescher] showed some speed yesterday. Showed some things on the track that I felt like caught my eye.”
Hamlin races Austin Cindric for position at Michigan. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Seventy-four laps were completed on Sunday before rain led to the postponement of the race. After qualifying 13th, Hamlin earned three points by finishing Stage 1 in eighth.
In an episode of his “Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin” podcast recorded Sunday night, Hamlin explained that he thought he had one of the best cars before the postponement but couldn’t show it. He led just once for one lap. He had hoped that the sun would warm the racing surface and make conditions slick, but overcast conditions remained on Monday.
“It wasn’t a whole lot different. These conditions are cooler – cloudy, more on-throttle time, harder to pass,” Hamlin said when asked how the track raced over the two days. “But that is kind of what you get here at Michigan – it’s a track position, track strategy track.”
Hamlin trails Truex by 57 points in the pursuit for the regular-season championship. Three races remain — the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Watkins Glen International at Daytona International Speedway. He won at The Glen in 2016 and has won three Daytona 500s.
Hamlin’s searching for his first Cup Series title to round out his future Hall-of-Fame career.
