Photos by Patrick Dobbs
Sparks flew from the fresh brake pads of Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Fed-Ex Toyota during the initial laps of the Dan Lowry 400. Hamlin led 381 laps and was cruising to a win when a cut tire dropped him all the way to a 24th place finish.  Below: Late in the Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400, Michael Waltrip, (55) has a run-in with Paul Menard and the two cars became locked together bumper to bumper. After Waltrip broke free, NASCAR officials determined that Waltrip intentionally hit Menard and Waltrip was parked for the remainder of the race. Bottom: The mangled car of Kurt Busch was hauled away after slamming into Patrick Carpentier during a 11-car pileup on lap 228.

Double disappointment at RIR
By Charlie Leffler


May 03, 2008

Bowyer wins, Hamlin goes flat and Busch is the bad guy...once again

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Saturday night looked to be an evening of promise for fans of two of NASCAR’s most beloved drivers, Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Hamlin came into the Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400 attempting to do something that had only been done twice before. After winning the Lipton Iced Tea 250 on Friday night, Hamlin looked to join Harry Gant (1991) and Kevin Harvick (2006) by sweeping a weekend series at Richmond International Raceway.

Hamlin dreamed of getting a Cup win at RIR, Earnhardt dreamed of a win, period.

Earnhardt came to RIR winless in his last 71 races. Two years had passed since Earnhardt’s last win, which just happened to be at RIR.

Between the two drivers there were dreams to be fulfilled and for most of the night it looked like Hamlin’s was going to come true.

Starting on the pole, Hamlin ran away from the pack and led the race with adn unblemished run for 381 of the 400 laps. Then just when it looked as if Hamlin would make history the bad luck history of last year came back and bit him. A V-shaped cut in Hamlin’s right front tire caused it to lose air pressure and he quickly drop from the lead 19 laps from taking the checkered flag.

Then to add to add insult to injury, the tire went completely flat and Hamlin stopped on the track, bringing out a caution and a two-lap penalty for intentionally drawing a yellow flag. The penalty dropped him to a 24th place finish.

Hamlin’s teammate Kyle Busch was running second at the time did not know why Hamlin stopped on the track. “I don’t know what his situation was, I believe it was a flat right front tire,” Busch said. “If he couldn’t have made the pits, it’s awfully hard to turn these things with right front tire going down because the splitter scraps the racetrack then, you basically go straight into the wall.”

To Busch, it appeared Hamlin had little choice but to stop. “I’d rather give Denny the benefit of the doubt than say that he did it deliberately.

“It’s just a bummer deal for him because he had the car to beat,” Busch said. “He had the field covered. He ran a flawless race and he had spectacular pit stops all day, everybody kept him out front all day. No mistakes on his part, no mistakes in the pits. It’s such a bummer to see that happen to him. Those guys deserved it.”

Throughout the race, Hamlin clearly had the superior car so it was ironic that on Friday, afternoon, prior to both races, he spoke on how difficult it is to win with the best car.

“It’s extremely hard,” Hamlin said. “You can count on both hands how many times you felt like you had the fastest car and didn’t win. A lot of people feel that way and that’s true. The fastest car wins maybe one out of three races. Other than that it’s just circumstances.”

With circumstances causing Hamlin to fall out of contention, it was Earnhardt’s chance at redemption.

As Hamlin dropped back, Earnhardt battled past Busch to take the lead. Then on the green/white restart after the Hamlin caution, Earnhardt got into a battle with Busch for the win.

But with two laps to go and both cars on old tires, running side to side on the back stretch, Busch brushed Earnhardt and the No. 88 car went into the wall. Earnhardt fell to 15th and Clint Bowyer passed both to take the lead and eventually the win.

Though Busch did not intentionally spin-out Earnhardt, he was immediately labeled the villain.

In post-race interviews, Earnhardt did not place blame on Busch.

“If I’d had wanted to do it to him deliberately I’d have waited until the last lap and I probably could have still won the race,” Busch said.

“We just didn’t give each other enough room going into turn three,” Busch said. “I didn’t feel like I slipped. We just kind of banged simultaneously and that’s when I got loose and he was gone.

“If I went out there on that final restart and just gave way to the 88 car then that wouldn’t be a true race car driver,” Busch said. “I had to do what I had to do to win.”

Already labeled with a bad-boy image, Busch indicated there is no way he will ever be able to make amends with Earnhardt fans.  “For some reason they’re awfully confused because they were giving me the No. 1 sign the last 10 laps and I was in second place still,” Busch said. “I don’t know if those are too many old Dale Jr. Budweisers or whether they’re Amp-ed up or what, but for me there’s nothing you can say. Absolutely nothing.

“It’s just unfortunate that he didn’t get a win and for me because now I’ve got to put up with it,” Busch said. 

In the post-race press conference, Bowyer joked about Earnhardt fans blaming Busch for the wreck. “I told the cops, they were escorting me in here (media center), they’d better escort Kyle Busch out of here,” he said.

The biggest tangle of the race brought out a red flag on lap 231 when J.J. Yeley went into the wall on turn two. As he slowed, traffic began to accumulate and Patrick Carpentier went sideways. A pile-up ensued involving 11 cars including, Regan Smith, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton, David Gilliland, Juan Pablo Montoya, Matt Kenseth, Johnny Sauter and Carl Edwards, Paul Menard.

Though he failed to pick up the win, Hamlin did set the record for leading the most laps at Richmond by surpassing 369 lead laps by Bobby Allison in 1979.

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