Hamlin holds off Gordon and wins at Atlanta

[media-credit name=”Noel Lanier” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Denny Hamlin held off Jeff Gordon on Sunday and won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500 Atlanta Motor Speedway. This was Hamlin’s fourth win of the season, the most of any driver thus far and places himself in position to top the standings when the 12-driver Chase starts after next weekend’s race at Richmond.

“I wanted this one real bad. The car faded a little bit, but the pit crew won me that race. That’s what a championship team is all about. This year, I think we have it all.” Hamlin said.

Jamie McMurray brought out the final caution flag of the night after hitting the wall on lap 320. Setting up a shootout between Hamlin, Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr.

Gordon bumped Hamlin for the lead on the restart and then went high entering turn-1. Hamlin was able to stay in front and hold off Gordon on the final lap and captured his first win at the speedway and the 21st of his career.

“I should have just run into the back of him going into three and move him up the race track and we would have been sitting in victory lane right now and counting another win. This Chase is too important for me to be in it and not to make a move like that….I wouldn’t have wanted to wreck him but I would have liked to have that one over again.” Gordon said.

Keselowski finished third, Truex Jr. fourth and Harvick finished fifth.

“A solid night here at Atlanta and proud of the effort. Got some good consistency and some great cars and it feels good to be locked into the Chase, too.” Keselowski said.

On lap 269, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr. all were involved in a crash on the backstretch. Johnson and Newman both had heavy damage and went to the garage. Johnson finished 34th and Newman finished 35th.

“I think the 48 just ran out of room and it was unfortunate. We have one chore to do with the U.S. Army team and that is to go into Richmond and win. We have done it before and we can do it again.” Newman said.

Carl Edwards lost his engine on lap 264. Edwards finished 36th.

“It started making noise about 25-30 laps ago and it’s just hard to put into words. That’s just how our season has been going and I don’t know what the reason is. We treat these engines like gold and we hardly ever have engine troubles.” Edwards said. “These guys do a great job, Doug Yates and everyone at Roush Yates Engines. But we’ll go to Richmond and go win that race and somehow maybe a miracle will happen. We’ll make the Chase and go win this championship. That’s our mission.”

Next week at Richmond International Speedway shapes up to be a shootout between Kasey Kahne (751 pts), Kyle Busch (746pts), Gordon (734pts) and Edwards (720pts). Kahne and Bush currently hold the wild card spots. Kahne has two wins and Busch and Gordon both have one.