Racing on his home track,Richmond International Raceway, Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season finale.
After a record of 16 cautions, Hamlin managed to drive his way up to the first place, that qualifies Denny Hamlin along with other others to compete for the Chase.
Winning in his hometown is really significant to Hamlin and that made his victory even sweeter.
"That's what's so special about it," he said , who started from the pole and led the last 86 laps (189 total) on the way to his third victory of the season, his third at the .75-mile track and the 29th of his career. "You get to do it at home."
"I see all the extra Denny Hamlin shirts and hats and everything, and it just fires me up every time I get here. This was a great car, and hopefully, we can use it in the Chase."
The crazy race finished with 7 cars damaged, but no major injuries in the drivers were reported.
Chase Elliott and Chris Buescher had to battle it tight for them to both qualify for NASCAR's 10-race playoff. This two rookies both secured a spot in the Chase field.
The third caution out of 16 is by Elliot, after having contact with the turn 1 wall.
Buescher made a green-flag pit stop on lap 308 of 407 due to a deflating tire. It cost him two laps but still able to finish at 24th.
Ryan Newman's No. 31 Chevrolet and Tony Stewart's No. 14 Chevy came in contact in Lap 363, this contact sent their cars out of control, blocking the track.
This incident ended with quite some words from both drivers after the race during an interview:
"The No. 14 (Stewart) cut across my nose into Turn 1, and I got into him after that, but he'd already chopped into me and messed up my line, and I clipped him a little bit coming off of (Turn) 2," according to Newman. "And then he just drove across my nose on the back straightaway. We'll keep fighting like we always do. It's just unfortunate not to end the way we wanted to. It's just disappointing that you've got somebody old like that, that should be retired the way he drives. It's just ridiculous." He added.
On the other hand, the three-time champion, Stewart said: "That was the third time he'd driven into me during the night, and how many times does a guy get a free pass until you've had enough of it?"
"He's got to do his part racing for a championship, too, and to race to get in there, and if you're going to run into guys -- I go into (Turn) 1 and he dive bombs in there"
"I'm already coming down, so it's not like I was trying to squeeze him in the infield or something. Ryan and I have been good friends. I don't do that to him. But he hits me in 1, he hits me off of 2, and it's like the third time by that time. There was once early in the race that nobody saw. Three times, that's two more times than I normally let somebody run into me."
With all this craze and a number of cautions, Kyle Larson made it on the second spot, Martin Truex Jr. ran third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick. Kasey Kahne ran sixth. McMurray, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
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