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[/media-credit]Consider it batting practice or a nice warm-up for tomorrow’s Cup event at Martinsville. That’s what Denny Hamlin seemed to do on Saturday afternoon as he went out and won the Camping World Truck Series event, muscling his way past Matt Crafton with six laps to go.
Hamlin, who has won at the paperclip four times in the Cup Series, went back-to-back in the CWTS at the facility. It was also his second career CWTS win. And he did it the hard way coming from the back after missing the drivers meeting, negating his fifth place spot he had earned.
“It was a great day for us, kind of taking our time getting to the front at the beginning. We had a race winning truck on the long run,” said Hamlin. “The second run our truck wasn’t quite as good and I think a couple guys got a little better as well.
“We had to tune our truck back to where it was the first run and it took off again. Proud of the adjustments and the opportunity to run for Kyle [Busch, owner] and Rick [Ren, crew chief]. It’s always great to get a win and especially with the circumstances we have the next few weeks on the Cup side.”
The victory was the first for Kyle Busch Motorsports this season. Brian Scott drove the company’s primary entry, the No. 18, to a 10th place finish. Hamlin drove the No. 51 Toyota to victory in just his second start – he finished top five earlier this season at Pocono – of the season.
In doing so, he led the final six laps after taking the lead, but it was all that was enough. Afterwards Crafton greeted Hamlin in victory lane, leaning inside his truck to discuss the wining move. It wasn’t a pass, felt Crafton, instead he got run into and moved out of the way.
“He was really happy about finishing fourth, he was excited about it. What do you expect, you’re the leader, it’s a few laps to go,” joked Hamlin about the encounter.
“If you rewind the tape from Cup in 2008 or ’09, I think I was in the same position and Jimmie Johnson pulled that same exact move on me and we got the bad end of that deal. It’s just when you’re the leader with a few laps to go, you got to expect it, you’re at Martinsville. You can’t wreck the guy, that’s off the limits. Move him up and out of the groove, that’s standard protocol at this type of racetrack.”
In defense however, Hamlin said he tried to race Crafton clean. Giving him extra room getting into turn one because Crafton had been sliding up the track from driving in too deep. Finally, Hamlin had enough of getting run up the track, so when the two got to turn three he made his move.
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[/media-credit]Either way, it didn’t matter for Hamlin. The Virginia native is putting his best foot forward at a track he normally is one step ahead of the competition. One he now is in position to sweep. On Sunday the goal is to take a chunk out of Brad Keselowski’s point lead, he’s currently 20 behind sitting third.
“I think it will be important. The setups are nothing alike, so you can’t take that part of it. But you can take the strategy. You can look at tire wear and say, ‘we pitted with a certain amount of laps and over here on the truck we ran this many of laps before we pitted.’ And see how the cycles went at the end,” revealed Hamlin.
“I think that’s something we can learn. But other than that, not a whole lot translates other than the techniques that I use personally around this racetrack. For me, it’s just more laps on the racetrack and continuing to learn to be better.”
While sweeping the weekend will be difficult, Hamlin has the right mentality. Determined not to lose any more points to Keselowski he wants to capitalize on his best track. Starting in the front of the field, with Keselowski having to overcome a difficult qualifying position, gives Hamlin the advantage on the start.
Now, the FedEx team will need to capitalize. Hamlin has the most laps and experience at Martinsville than most in the field. On Saturday, he put that to good use, running a race that has no meaning, but could pay dividends for Hamlin when it comes to the bigger picture.
“I don’t know, ‘cause I feel like. I don’t know really,” said Hamlin on competing in the Kroger 200.
“One thing is, I do feel like there’s merit to working your technique at this particular racetrack. At other racetracks where there’s higher speeds, you drive the two totally different, it’s not even the same. This, between the Truck Series and the Cup cars, is the two most similar races we have on any track I feel like. This is the closest to a Cup car in simulation as it can be. So, this is one that I can continue to stay fresh with how I continue to drive this racetrack.”
