Denny Hamlin outlasts Kenseth, Dale Jr. for Homestead win

By Nov 17, 2013, 7:21 PM EST
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After enduring a season from Hell, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin finally found a bit of Heaven in tonight’s Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Hamlin took the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 24 laps to go and went on to win the Ford Ecoboost 400 by eight-tenths of a second over teammate Matt Kenseth, who came up 19 points short of ninth-place finisher Jimmie Johnson in the 2013 Sprint Cup championship.

That title was something Hamlin was expecting to contend for at the beginning of the season, but a last-lap crash at Auto Club Speedway in March left him with a compression fracture in his back that forced him out of the next four races before he returned to start his No. 11 JGR Toyota at Talladega in May.

Hamlin then strung together finishes of second and fourth in his first two full races back from the injury, but then hit a very rough patch as he could only muster one Top-10 finish in the next 18 events.

However, the Virginia native closed strong with three Top-10s in the four races before his breakthrough tonight at Homestead. With the triumph, Hamlin has now won at least one race in eight consecutive seasons.

“Man, I wanted to keep that streak alive,” Hamlin told ESPN in Victory Lane. “The whole FedEx team has stuck with us…They said I won a 25-foot Contender boat, so that’s awesome. It’s just a heck of a way to go out.”

As for Kenseth, he raced valiantly on Sunday, pacing a race-high 144 laps and surviving a stack-up with 74 laps to go that almost ruined both his day and Johnson’s.

The 2003 Cup champion fell back several spots after the incident, but fought back to fourth by the final restart with 28 laps to go and then took down a game Dale Earnhardt Jr. for second in the closing moments.

While he was unable to overtake Johnson and win a second Cup crown, Kenseth was still thrilled with his season altogether, which saw him and the No. 20 JGR squad win a series-high seven times.

“It was just an unbelievable year for us,” Kenseth said. “Obviously, we wanted to finish it off and win the championship as good as we ran all year. But I couldn’t be more proud of the whole Dollar General/Home Depot team. They did a spectacular job all season, all day today. I’m super-happy for Denny to get his win here tonight. He really needed that. Denny and Kyle [Busch] are awesome teammates, and I’m looking forward to getting into next season.”

“The day overall was really good for us – really dominant when the sun was out but when it got dark, we were off a little bit and then had the mishap on that restart that kind of got us behind. But, overall, I don’t think you could ask for much more.”

Earnhardt finished third to complete a fine Chase for him that saw him collect five Top-5 and eight Top-10 finishes. With the result, he secured fifth place in the championship standings behind Johnson, Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

In his final race with Michael Waltrip Racing before moving to Furniture Row Racing in 2014, Martin Truex Jr. capitalized on his strong practice pace to finish fourth ahead of his now-former teammate, Clint Bowyer, in fifth.

After New York whirlwind, Josef Newgarden makes special trip to simulator before Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 10:00 AM EDT
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DETROIT – There’s no rest for the weary as an Indy 500 winner, but Josef Newgarden discovered there are plenty of extra laps.

The reigning Indy 500 champion added an extra trip Wednesday night back to Concord, N.C., for one last session on the GM Racing simulator before Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

After a 30-year run on the Belle Isle course, the race has been moved to a nine-turn, 1.7-mile layout downtown, so two extra hours on the simulator were worth it for Newgarden.

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“I really wanted to do it,” he told NBC Sports at a Thursday media luncheon. “If there’s any time that the sim is most useful, it’s in this situation when no one has ever been on a track, and we’re able to simulate it as best as we can. We want to get some seat time.

“It’s extra important coming off the Indy 500 because you’ve been out of rhythm for a road or street course-type environment, so I really wanted some laps. I was really appreciative to Chevy. There was a few guys that just came in and stayed late for me so I could get those laps before coming up here. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference, but I feel like it’s going to help for me.”

After a whirlwind tour of New York for two days, Newgarden arrived at the simulator (which is at the GM Racing Technical Center adjacent to Hendrick Motorsports) in time for a two hour session that started at 6 p.m. Wednesday. He stayed overnight in Charlotte and then was up for an early commercial flight to Detroit, where he had more media obligations.

Newgarden joked that if he had a jet, he would have made a quick stop in Nashville, Tennessee, but a few more days away from home (where he has yet to return in weeks) is a worthy tradeoff for winning the Greatest Spectacle in Racing – though the nonstop interviews can take a toll.

“It’s the hardest part of the gig for me is all this fanfare and celebration,” Newgarden said. “I love doing it because I’m so passionate about the Indy 500 and that racetrack and what that race represents. I feel honored to be able to speak about it. It’s been really natural and easy for me to enjoy it because I’ve been there for so many years.

“Speaking about this win has been almost the easiest job I’ve ever had for postrace celebrations. But it’s still for me a lot of work. I get worn out pretty easily. I’m very introverted. So to do this for three days straight, it’s been a lot.”

Though he is terrified of heights, touring the top of the Empire State Building for the first time was a major highlight (and produced the tour’s most viral moment).

“I was scared to get to the very top level,” Newgarden said. “That thing was swaying. No one else thought it was swaying. I’m pretty sure it was. I really impressed by the facility. I’d never seen it before. It’s one of those bucket list things. If you go to New York, it’s really special to do that. So to be there with the wreath and the whole setup, it just felt like an honor to be in that moment.”

Now the attention shifts to Detroit and an inaugural circuit that’s expected to be challenging. Along with a Jefferson Avenue straightaway that’s 0.9 miles long, the track has several low-speed corners and a “split” pit lane (teams will stop on both sides of a rectangular area) with a narrow exit that blends just before a 90-degree lefthand turn into Turn 1.

Newgarden thinks the track is most similar to the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“It’s really hard to predict with this stuff until we actually run,” he said. “Maybe we go super smooth and have no issues. Typically when you have a new event, you’re going to have some teething issues. That’s understandable. We’ve always got to massage the event to get it where we want it, but this team has worked pretty hard. They’ve tried to get feedback constantly on what are we doing right, what do we need to look out for. They’ve done a ton of grinding to make sure this surface is in as good of shape as possible.

“There’s been no expense spared, but you can’t foresee everything. I have no idea how it’s going to race. I think typically when you look at a circuit that seems simple on paper, people tend to think it’s not going to be an exciting race, or challenging. I find the opposite always happens when we think that way. Watch it be the most exciting, chaotic, entertaining race.

Newgarden won the last two pole positions at Belle Isle’s 2.35-mile layout and hopes to continue the momentum while avoiding any post-Brickyard letdown.

“I love this is an opportunity for us to get something right quicker than anyone else,” he said. “A new track is always exciting from that standpoint. I feel I’m in a different spot. I’m pretty run down. I’m really trying to refocus and gain some energy back for tomorrow. Which I’ll have time to today, which is great.

“I don’t want that Indy 500 hangover. People always talk about it. They’ve always observed it. That doesn’t mean we have to win this weekend, but I’d like to leave here feeling like we had a really complete event, did a good job and had a solid finish leading into the summer. I want to win everywhere I go, but if we come out of here with a solid result and no mistakes, then probably everyone will be happy with it.”