Denny Hamlin withstood a chaotic ending to win Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at the Watkins Glen International road course.
Denny Hamlin wins the 2016 Cheez-It 355 at The Glen
Hamlin scores his first career win on a road course race.
Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
It is the second victory of the season and first on a road course for Hamlin, who also won the season-opening Daytona 500 in February. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now owns victories on every variety of track comprising the Sprint Cup schedule (superspeedway, intermediate, short track, road course).
Joey Logano finished second and Brad Keselowski was third. Rounding out the top five were A.J. Allmendinger and Tony Stewart, making his final start on the 2.45-mile, seven-turn road course before retiring at the end of the year.
Hamlin led the final 10 laps after passing Busch and Keselowski, but a sequence of cautions kept things interesting. The first involved a single-car spin by Ryan Newman, then a multi-car crash involving Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, David Ragan and others.
Each time the race was restarted Hamlin maintained his position despite a persistent push from second-place running Martin Truex Jr. On the final lap, Truex Jr. tried several attempts to pass but was unable to, before contact with Keselowski sent Truex spinning as Hamlin sped underneath the checkered flag.
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