Denny Hamlin roughs up field en route to XFINITY win at Loudon
Denny Hamlin didn't make many friends Saturday on his way to Victory Lane in the Lakes Region 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Hamlin ran into Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch early in the XFINITY Series race, then nudged Austin Dillon out of the way late en route to the win.
"Two guys racing hard for a win, that's for sure," Hamlin said of running into Busch on Lap 23 of the race. Then he added, "We had the best car. Wow, what a day."
As for running into Dillon on Lap 179 of the 200-lap event, Hamlin said: "Well, he jumped the (final) restart for one. I'm the control car. Eventuallly I was going to get back around him. I was a fender ahead and got in there and just washed up into him. That's just two guys doing some short-track racing."
Dillon didn't see it the same way.
"That wasn't good racing," Dillon said. "He didn't want anybody racing him side-by-side for more than a lap. He wrecked his teammate (Busch) at the beginning of the race."
The incident with Busch caused both drivers to come from deep in the field on the subsequent restart. But it took Hamlin a mere nine laps to regain the lead and he ran up front for most of the rest of the way.
Dillon did grab the lead briefly on the final restart. But when Hamlin got underneath him and nudged him out of the way, Keselowski and Kyle Busch all passed Dillon, who then had to fight his way back to the front over the closing laps but never could get close enough to Hamlin again to seriously challenge him.
In the end, Hamlin led a race-high 145 laps and scored his second series win of the season. Dillon finished second, with Brad Keselowski, Busch and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top five.
Dillon hinted that he may try to even the score with Hamlin down the road.
"I'm not going to talk about it. He won't be ready," an obviously angry Dillon said.
Told what Dillon said, Hamlin did not seem concerned.
"Well, we both have got race cars," Hamlin said.
