Alex Bowman passed Denny Hamlin on a restart with 10 laps to go and drove away for his third NASCAR Cup Series victory at Richmond Raceway.
Bowman produced a stunning conclusion to a race that Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Joey Logano had controlled. On the restart, with all attention on Hamlin and Logano, Bowman slid inside Hamlin, easily gained the position, and held it to the finish, becoming the eighth Cup winner this season.
Bowman’s win for Hendrick Motorsports in the No. 48 Chevrolet came on the same day that the car’s former driver, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, made his IndyCar Series debut in Alabama. It was the No. 48’s first victory since June 4, 2017.
Hamlin, who raced with the hashtag #fedexstrong on the back of his car and on his pit wall to honor the eight individuals shot in a FedEx facility in Indianapolis on Thursday, had a strong car for the second week in a straight but couldn’t finish. He did, however, finish in the top five for the eighth time in nine starts this season.
“We just didn’t take off very good there,” Hamlin said of the last restart.
He led 276 laps at Martinsville Speedway last week, but with 15 laps to go, he was passed by Truex, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
Hamlin finished second on Sunday, followed by Logano, Christopher Bell, and Truex.
Denny Hamlin Shirt 2017 Racing Clothes Nascar
During Stage 2, Brad Keselowski took a risk by staying on the track after the leaders pitted on lap 184. It gave him a massive advantage, but with 50 laps to go in the stage, he had no hope of holding off the leaders and ended up a lap behind shortly before the finish. He was in position to get the free pass back onto the lead lap, but even that went away when Tyler Reddick, Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez all got by him before the stage ended. When the final stage went green, Keselowski, the winner here last fall, was in 16th place.
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