‘Just drove as hard as I could,’ NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin on his ‘unbelievable’ win at Richmond Raceway cup series race

‘Just drove as hard as I could,’ NASCAR veteran Denny Hamlin on his ‘unbelievable’ win at Richmond Raceway cup series race

Denny Hamlin wins the Toyota Owners 400

The drama and uncertainty of the 2022 NASCAR season continue as Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin drove his No. 11 Toyota Camry to the victory lane in Virginia, his home track, securing the first win for a Toyota car in 2022.

Denny Hamlin topped Hendrick Motorsport driver William Byron and fellow veteran Kevin Harvick by just a margin of .552-second at the chequered flag, in the final five laps of the race. The race was fought on tire strategies and a double pit stop from the No:11 team was enough to top the chart.

No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team opted to stay out on older tires for the last 90 laps and had a strong lead against his rivals but multiple pits during the latter session of the race saw veterans Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick climbing up the spots to secure top finishes.

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Denny Hamlin, who had the new tires with 47 laps to go, took the runner-up spot from his JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. with six laps to go and continue moving forward and made into the lead around Byron with five laps remaining. Kevin Harvick who also was on fresh tires got the p2 after following Hamlin’s path.

Find out what Denny Hamlin had to say about the win

Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin told in the post-race interview that all things like performance and luck got matched up perfectly for him this Sunday. He went on to say that the two pit strategy his team opted for was great as he had no, maybe a little doubt in his mind about getting a win in his Toyota Camry.

“You just have a tough season and if things aren’t going well and it seems like the breaks aren’t going your way and then the law of averages says things are going to kind of work out and we get our performance better and today’s the day where it all matched up,” Denny Hamlin said.

“Yeah, just great strategy there. Just drove as hard as I could. There was no doubt in my mind, maybe just a little, but they got this car right there towards the end. Wow, unbelievable,” Denny Hamlin added.

Denny Hamlin later suggested that the Richmond win will help him balance his season so far and will also be a great data point for future races saying  “We needed a data point — something — a good run to kind of balance ourselves on other tracks. Obviously, I think we got it here,”.

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