“He said he was coming for me. I usually don’t see him so he’s usually not a factor.”
Those were the words of Denny Hamlin this past March following the Cup race at Bristol. He was referring to Joey Logano who was irate after getting spun by Hamlin while running second in the race. Those strong words uttered by Hamlin would come back to haunt him just one week later.
As fate would have it, the ex-teammates and new rivals were locked into an epic battle for the win at Auto Club Speedway just seven days after their Bristol conflict. After nearly crashing each other with six to go, the gloves came off and the battle for the win was on. Logano led the race as Hamlin stalked him with a fire in his eyes and the pedal through the floor.
Coming to the white flag, Hamlin gave the No. 22 a shot in the rear and moved alongside. Logano responded by running him up the track, trying desperately to slow his momentum. The two roared out of turn two and neither lifted. They slammed doors down the backstretch as the pair approached the checkered flag.
In the final corner, Hamlin seemed to have the advantage but a second place result would not suffice for Logano who was still seething over the Bristol incident. He mashed the gas and implemented the philosophy, “eight tires are better than four” in a final attempt to steal the win. The result … Logano slammed the outside wall as Hamlin spun head-on into a part of the inside wall that was not protected by safer barriers.
Over the radio, he screamed in agony; “my back! My back!” He was loaded onto a stretcher as Logano drove down pit road, flipped the bird to the horrified crew and said in a post-race interview, “that’s what he gets.”
To be fair, he was just involved in a brawl with Tony Stewart on pit road and knew nothing regarding Hamlin’s condition at the time.
Hamlin suffered a compression fracture in his lower back and had to sit out the next six weeks due to the crash. The animosity between these former teammates could not be understated following their clash at 200mph and neither have mended their relationship since that day. When Hamlin returned, he ripped off back-to-back finishes of second and sixth but suddenly, the wheels fell off his chase aspirations. He crashed heavily multiple times during the year injuring his hand at Bristol and even going airborne in the July event at Daytona.
Arriving at Homestead was a relief for the beaten and battered Hamlin as he could see an end to this nightmare of a season. After an enthralling late-race duel for the win with Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin captured the checkered flag and ended his year celebrating in victory lane. The irony of his Homestead triumph is obvious but how about what it symbolizes? To me, this win was an unspoken statement by Hamlin showing that the championship caliber driver that we knew before the injury was still in there somewhere.
I’ll admit that I started to question whether we’d ever see Hamlin racing at his full potential ever again. I was concerned that the spinal fracture would change him as a driver much like Formula 1 racer Felipe Massa who after nearly winning the 2008 championship, hasn’t won a single race since after suffering a head injury early in 2009. We can’t ignore that Hamlin’s results were also hindered by the fact that he became the JGR Guinea pig for experimental setups to test for his teammates who were both in title contention this year.
When a team is down in the dumps like the No. 11 was, the best time to win is in the final race of the year. It’s the most overlooked win of the season but to the team, they are able to ride that high through the entire winter which is crucial as they prepare for 2014. In the last four Homestead events excluding 2013 obviously, the winner went on to be the championship runner-up the following year twice.
You can do whatever you want in an attempt to motivate a race team but there’s no stronger medicine than victory lane champagne.
