Denny Hamlin felt like he conceded any chance to win his namesake Short Track Showdown before it even started.

Even though he qualified 10th, the former Chesterfield resident would have started in the pole position for the race because NASCAR changed the starting order out of safety concerns. Therefore Hamlin responded by putting himself at the back of the field. He felt it was the right thing to do.

Hamlin needn’t have worried, however. Working steadily forward throughout the 75-lap race, he took advantage of a couple of late wrecks and slipped around a fading Kyle Busch in the final lap to win.

“Basically, we had a qualifying lineup that we agreed kind of upon, but it didn’t work quite as good as what I hoped,” Hamlin said. “What we had is all the Cup guys, wherever they qualified, they were going to line up on the inside. We had everybody else line up on the outside. So a lot of guys who qualified fifth or sixth got put back to, like, 16th on the start. The way it worked out, I was going to start on the pole.”

The intent of the plan was to put RIR veterans on the more hazardous inside line at the start. Under the circumstances, Hamlin did not think it fair for him to get the best position, so he moved to the back.

Despite the best of intentions, the first wreck happened in the back of the pack in turn two before the first lap was complete. Hamlin deftly avoided getting trapped by the collision, but his tired suffered. Because of the rules of the Late Model event he had to wait until nearly half way through the race to change tires.

“I just kind of picked up a few positions and got to the top 10,” Hamlin said. He seized the advantage on restarts following two late wrecks to get behind Kyle Busch, then took advantage of what Busch called a “fuel-line problem” in the final lap to win.

“I thought it was the tires at first, but I noticed he was shaking his car after the restarts,” Hamlin said. “We were coming off turn two when I got to his bumper. I’m glad he ran out of fuel, because it might have got ugly anyway.”

The second two finishers in the race came at opposite ends of the age spectrum. A grizzled veteran two days shy of his 48th birthday, Michael Waltrip, stayed in the top five throughout the night and finished second. The third place finisher was 15-year-old Chase Elliott.

“It’s so cool, being an old guy like me and seeing all these kids,” Waltrip said. “The kids are getting to race, and some of these guys are going to be the stars of our sport. Darrell Wallace Jr. is an amazing competitor. Just looking at Corey LaJoie charging to the front at the end, and getting to see Chase Elliott—I mean, these are kids of the dads I used to race against. Just to see their enthusiasm makes me feel good about our sport going forward.”

Waltrip was not too happy with one of the young drivers. He found the aggressiveness of Max Gresham, in car No. 71, something of a nuisance.

“I don’t know where the hell he thought he was going,” Waltrip said. “It was like we weren’t even there and he was just going to go through us. So, I’m glad he wrecked.”

The night was special for Chase Elliott—it was the first time he raced against his father, NASCAR legend Bill Elliott. The elder Elliott was knocked out in a wreck on lap 29.

“It was the first day I raced against my dad,” Chase Elliott said. “It was pretty cool. I wish he’d have been battling up front with us and that I’d have been able to race against him a little bit more than just that one corner I got to run with him. I was looking forward to it.”

Mechanicsville’s Frank Dieny Jr. finished fifth.

Earlier in the evening, 17-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr., a Gibbs racing teammate of Hamlin’s, who owner JD Gibbs describes as a rising star in the sport, battled Gresham for the lead through most of the rain-interrupted Blue Ox 100, a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race. Gresham led the first 22 laps, when rain forced a halt to the racing. After a two-hour delay, the two drivers renewed their battle. Wallace slipped round Gresham in lap 80 and never yielded.

Gresham faded, allowing Brett Moffit to finish second and Corey LaJoie to claim third.

“[Gresham] was a little tight coming off of two and snapping loose, so I was just able to go in wide on one and zoom in across the bottom coming off,” Wallace said. “I was able to get a better run than him … I took it away from him, moved up my line into three and took the win away.”