June 14, 2010
By Ron Felix
Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch were the class of the field in Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at Michigan International Speedway but it was Hamlin who came out on top.
Hamlin took the advantage in "The Chase For The Championship" by leading 123 of 200 laps and recording his fifth victory of the year.
It was Hamlin's 13th win in 166 career races. Hamlin won a race in the Nationwide Series in 2007 at Michigan but it was his first victory in the Sprint Cup Series at the two-mile track.
“I think there are some aspects of our race team that can get better," said Hamlin. "I think our pit crew has definitely stepped up. I feel like my communication with Mike (Ford, crew chief) has stepped up.
"What I’m telling Mike and then applying to the race car has gotten better. I feel like each week that we show up, we just set our bar a little bit higher than it was the week before. You go to Pocono, everyone expects us to win. They jot us down, engrave the trophy. There’s a lot of effort that gets put into that. It’s not as easy as it looks. The way we’re performing now goes back six months, a year from now.
CIA Stock Photos
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Hamlin Dominates at Michigan
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"We’ve worked very, very hard to get to this spot right now. To show up the way we did on Friday and know we just kept battling. Literally, I looked at the notes on how many things we changed right here before race day, and I was a skeptic. When you got faith in a guy like Mike to make the right decisions, it’s easy to do my job.”
Hamlin had never dominated a race such as the one on Sunday, at the Sprint Cup level of competition.
“In late models I did, but the competition level is a little different. But, no, we never stopped working," said Hamlin. "Regardless of whether we have a nine-tenths of a second lead or nine-second lead, we’re constantly trying to make our car better. I think we’ve got some ideas to improve our car the next time we come back. We’re not going to get complacent.
"Even though it looks strong, it’s not as easy as it looked today. Friday and Saturday were somewhat of a struggle for us. We got lucky qualifying seventh simply because we went out early. We probably would have qualified 15th to 20th if we went out any later. So we just capitalized and did everything we were supposed to do to win.”
Kasey Kahne finished second and Kurt Busch was third.
"We had the new Ford engine and it was night and day difference to what I had last week," said Kahne I am really happy with the FR9 engine. For our first time racing it, it was a nice improvement. I think that bodes well for all the Ford teams. I think we will all run better now. I feel like we didn’t lose 10 spots in the pits, I didn’t make mistakes, we had good feedback and the adjustments on the car were good and the car stayed together. We have had a lot of down moments this year, so it was nice to put a full race together and feel like a Cup team and Cup driver. It is something for us to build on."
Jeff Gordon filled the fourth position followed by Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle and Joey Logano to round out the top ten.
Kevin Harvick finished 19th and still maintains his lead in the standings over Kyle Busch by 22 points.
"We just missed the setup on our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet today," Harvick said. "It was either way too tight or way too loose. Gil Martin and our crew tried just about everything during our pit stops today, but we couldn't dial it in. I am looking forward to going to Sonoma to see some family and friends, and getting our 29 car back up front where we belong."
There were three caution flags for a total of 10 laps. Also there were 14 lead changes among eight different drivers.
The Sprint Cup Series moves to Infineon Raceway next Sunday -- June 20th, 2010 -- for the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Infineon will be the 16th race in the Chase for the Championship. Kasey Kahne was the winner at Infineon in 2009.
The race will also be broadcast live on PRN Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
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