Hamlin wins at Texas

Just three weeks ago Hamlin had surgery on his torn ACL in his left knee and was slow getting out of the car. “I’m trying to get it straight right now. I did it for the long run. Even though it was going to take some sacrifice, I knew once I came back I was going to be stronger.” Hamlin said.

 

“I never doubt this race team and Mike Ford (crew chief) did a great job there at the end. I have to thank the whole 11 team, everyone at FedEx, all the employees, Sprint and the fans. I’ve never seen so many fans on a Monday race like this. I can’t thank them enough. It’s just a great day for us.” Hamlin said.

 

“There at the end, the car was just dragging the nose too bad for the first couple of laps. I think we sat too long and the front tire pressures dropped. I lost a few spots. I almost hit the wall down in one and two trying to work the top. Once those front tire pressures came in and the splitter got off the ground, I started coming but it was like a lap too late.” Johnson said.

 

The race was restarted with 12 laps to go after a nine-car crash that was started by Jeff Gordon, who had led 124 laps, and Tony Stewart, who started from the pole. During the caution period before the restart, many drivers including Stewart only took two tires while Gordon took four.

 

When the race was restarted with 18 laps to go, Gordon, Stewart, and Johnson ended up three-wide coming out of Turn 4. Gordon was in the middle and Stewart got loose and both drivers spun. Both drivers suffered heady damage and were out of the race. Johnson made it through without any damage.

 

“When you get a late caution like that, you are going to have guys take two and guys take four. We chose to take four. Every second, every position counts on those restarts with that few of laps to go. I saw Tony backing up and then he got loose. I was trying not to get in to him. I ended up getting underneath him and we were three wide. Then I saw the 48 out on my left corner sneak in there as well. Just saw a lot of guys racing hard and we ran out of room. I got clipped in the right rear and turned me in the wall.” Gordon said.

 

Stewart too blame for the wreck. “I came off of four there and bounced off of Jeff’s right rear. It was just a pendulum and I lost it and got into his right rear and then I got us to where neither one of us could get away from it. Somebody put me three wide in one and two and that got me up to where I got a lot of crap on my tires and that started it. It was my fault. Feel bad about it, about doing something stupid like that. I didn’t plan on getting loose, but it is 100% my fault.” Stewart said.

 

Early on, Gordon and teammate Johnson had some hard racing that ended up with contact between the two. “He was real loose and I got to him and he got real loose. I got underneath me and he raced me hard. I slid up in front of him a little bit, maybe that was it. He ran in to the back of me for no reason.” Gordon said.

 

“I am pretty disappointed in how he was racing me today, but we will get to the bottom of it and sort it out. No need to play it out in the press and we’ll get it taken care of at the shop and during the week and come back to the next race and do it again. I think we are both pretty frustrated with how we have been racing each other. There was some things today I wasn’t real pleased with so when I had a chance to express myself, I kinda did. We’ll get it all sorted out. We don’t need to drag it out and make too much out of it. We will get it sorted out during the week.”

 

“I am disappointed. But, I’ll get over it and so will he. We’ll talk about it. We are good enough friends, good enough teammates. It is more just the competitors in us coming out there and the aggressiveness of wanting to win. Not anything against one another.” Gordon said.

 

Kyle Busch finished third, Kurt Busch fourth and Kasey Kahne finished fifth.