Diamond Hill Plywood 200 - Darlington Raceway

Hamlin Repeats at the Lady in Black
In a six-lap green-flag run to the finish, polesitter Denny Hamlin pulled away from Carl Edwards and Mark Martin to win Friday night's Diamond Hill Plywood 200 NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway. The victory was Hamlin's third in the series and his first since he won from the pole at Darlington last year. Martin, driving the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, got by Edwards in the closing laps to take second place. Edwards, the series' runaway leader by 433 points over Kevin Harvick, came home third, followed Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer in fourth and fifth respectively. Jason Leffler, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Casey Mears and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10. With the win at the track known as the "Lady in Black," Hamlin continues to excel at difficult, quirky tracks. He has two Busch Series wins at egg-shaped Darlington and two Nextel Cup victories at Pocono – a triangular track. "I think a lot of it is that I'm more on a level playing field with other guys I'm racing against," Hamlin said. "It's not easy to figure out these racetracks. If you get a standard oval, guys that have been running there for 10 years, they figure out how to get around there, and they learn all the tricks. The final six laps followed a stoppage of three minutes, 33 seconds for Bobby Labonte's hard nose-first crash into the inside frontstretch wall. Hamlin led Edwards and Martin to the restart on Lap 142 and pulled away as the two cars behind him battled for the second spot. A sorely needed caution on Lap 112 -- caused by a wreck involving Matt Kenseth and Brad Kesolowski -- allowed the leaders to pit under caution for fresh tires.Approximately half the lead-lap cars had run 67 circuits without new rubber, and the seventh caution of the race bunched the field with Hamlin in the lead and Edwards in second place for a Lap 118 restart. After a subsequent caution for a collision between the cars of David Reutimann and Paul Menard on Lap 121, the field restarted on Lap 126, and on lap later, Martin passed Burton for third. Two more cautions, including the record-tying 10th brought out by Labonte's crash, set up the final green-flag run.

Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Notes

· Race Results · Ford Post-Race Quotes · Toyota Post-Race Quotes · Rookie Post-Race Quotes · Fast Facts · WIX Filters Lap Leader Notes · Point Standings · Owner Point Standings · Starting Lineup · Qualifying Results · Final Practice · Practice 2 · Practice 1: Rookie Practice · Qualifying Order · Entry List · Weekend Schedule · Raybestos Rookie Notes · Mark Martin Notes · Ryan Newman Notes · Scott Riggs Notes

· Carl Edwards Notes · Kevin Harvick Notes · Dave Blaney Notes · Matt Kenseth Notes · David Ragan Notes · Juan Pablo Montoya Notes · Marcos Ambrose Notes · Greg Biffle Notes · Clint Bowyer Notes · Jeff Burton Notes · Shane Huffman Notes · Casey Mears Notes · Jason Leffler Notes · Denny Hamlin Notes · David Stremme Notes · Tony Stewart Notes · Bobby Labonte Notes · Eric McClure Notes · Todd Kluever Notes · Mike Bliss Notes

Second Busch Pole in a Row for Hamlin
Denny Hamlin won the Busch Pole for the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, lapping the Darlington Raceway in 29.448 seconds at 166.993 mph. This is Hamlin’s eighth Busch Pole in 79 career NASCAR Busch Series races. This is Hamlin’s second Busch Pole and his sixth top-10 start in eight NASCAR Busch Series races in 2007. This is Hamlin’s second consecutive Busch Pole and second top-10 start in four races at Darlington Raceway. David Stremme posted the second-fastest lap at 29.630 seconds, 165.967 mph and will join Hamlin on the front row. This is his fifth top-10 start in eight races this season and his second in four Darlington races. Greg Biffle (third) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2007 and sixth in 10 races at Darlington. Marcos Ambrose (fourth) was the fastest qualifying rookie.