Denny Hamlin was able to hold off Matt Kenseth after pitting with 8 laps remaining to win the Heluva Good 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. Hamlin was able to avoid setbacks that have previously plagued his runs and secure a victory at a track that he was supposed to contend at.
Sunday’s win at MIS marked Hamlin’s 17th career victory crossing the finish line with .281 seconds ahead of Kenseth. Also unlike some of his other outings where he would start out strong then fall late, Hamlin’s #11 Toyota was able to stay strong late to take the checkered flag.
“We finished—that’s the thing,” Hamlin said in victory lane. “We got it done. Everyone knows that we’ve been strong. Today we didn’t look as strong as what we normally do here, but we got it working there at the end.
“We made a magic adjustment, and the car took off. This is the point of the season where we really need to start hitting our stride, and hopefully we’ve got another good 10 weeks before the Chase starts.”
Hamlin’s teammate on Joe Gibbs racing Kyle Busch finished third for a second straight week and Paul Menard ended up coming in fourth, his best finish of the season. Carl Edwards ended up finishing 5th expanding his lead by 20 points over second place Kyle Harvick who finished 14th on Sunday.
Source: ESPN, SportingNews
