By AMANDA VINCENT
With a win in the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday night, Denny Hamlin has won exactly a quarter of the NASCAR Cup Series races, so far, in 2020. His latest win was his third, 12 races into the season. That tally makes him the winningest driver to this point in 2020. Sunday night’s win also was Hamlin’s 40th-career Cup Series win and his third at Homestead-Miami.
“Our car was really good,” Hamlin said. “This is a setup based off of what we had in the fall here last year, going for the championship. Had a strong car all day, obviously, with the laps led and was able to get around Chase (Elliott) there at the end. This whole FedEx team has just done a phenomenal job. This Camry is real special. Have to thank Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand, FedEx and all of our partners. Everyone at JGR for putting together great race cars and keep digging to make ourselves a little bit better.”
Chase Elliott finished second, and Ryan Blaney was third. Rookie Tyler Reddick posted a career-best finish of fourth, and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-five. Two rookies were in the top-10 at the checkered flag, as Christopher Bell also posted a career-best finish of eighth.
The Dixie Vodka 400 got off to a slow start. The initial green flag was delayed by more than an hour because of rain. After the completion of five laps, the race was delayed by more than two hours because of lightning. The race resumed but was postponed, again, by lighting for over 30 minutes after the completion of 33 laps.
Hamlin dominated the third and final 107 lap stage, usually with Elliott and Blaney trading the second and third positions behind him. Hamlin and Blaney traded the lead back and forth with about 74 laps to go in the 267-lap race, but Hamlin retook command of the top spot, leaving Blaney to, again, swap the second and third positions with Elliott.
Elliott pitted before Hamlin during the final green-flag cycle of the race with about 50 laps remaining. With the extra time on new tires, Elliott was the leader after the cycle of stops completed. With 30 laps to go, Hamlin retook the lead and ran up front for the remainder of the race.
“It seems like the end of these races are Chase’s best suit,” Hamlin said. “I knew that if I was just patient and ran the pace that I wanted and the pace I was comfortable with, we were going to be hard to beat in the long run.”
Hamlin also won the two 80-lap stages, but in a not so dominant fashion. After being credited with leading the ninth lap of the race, he took his first significant lead on lap 76 to lead the final five laps of stage one.
Hamlin started on the pole, but Joey Logano led the opening lap and ran up front for most of the first 29 laps before being passed by Elliott for the lead on lap 30. Elliott, then, led most of the second half of the first stage until Hamlin took the lead in the closing laps of the first stage.
Logano was among the drivers involved in a multi-car traffic jam on pit road after the final lightning delay. After sustaining damage to his car, he eventually went a lap down. He was involved in an incident with Ryan Newman, bringing out a caution on lap 170.
The caution for the incident between Logano and Newman was one of only two cautions for on-track incidents. The other also involved Newman on lap 21.
Hamlin was the leader for the restart at the beginning of the second stage, but he lost positions to Elliott and Newman on the lap-89 restart. After Elliott led a couple of laps, Blaney took the lead on lap 91. But after a cycle of green-flg pit stops just past lap 120, Hamlin was in front of Blaney after pitting a lap before Blaney during the cycle and maintained the lead to win the second stage at lap 160.
Other top-10 finishers included Kyle Busch in sixth, Austin Dillon in seventh, William Byron in ninth and Brad Keselowski in 10th.
Below, is the complete finishing order of the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway:
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