Hamlin Finally Wins at Richmond
With fresh tires on his No. 20 Toyota, Virginia native Denny Hamlin blew past Kevin Harvick on Lap 242 and weathered a green-white-checkered-flag restart to win Friday night's Lipton Tea 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway.
Hamlin had opened a lead of more than two seconds over Harvick, before Bryan Clauson's spin on Lap 247 brought out the eighth and final caution, necessitating the two-lap dash that took the race three laps beyond its posted distance of 250 laps.
Hamlin finished .790 seconds ahead of Harvick, who fell just short in trying to win his first race in his own car. Harvick, Carl Edwards and Mike Bliss had stayed on the track under caution on Lap 237, while Hamlin came in for new tires.
Full Story
Kahne Puts Lipton Dodge on Lipton Tea 250 Pole Position
Kasey Kahne put his No. 9 Lipton Dodge on the pole position for the Lipton Tea 250 at the Richmond International
Raceway. Kahne won the Coors Light Pole Award with a qualifying lap of 21.578 seconds, at an average speed of 125.127 mph, and secured his seventh pole in 146 career NASCAR Nationwide Series starts.
This is Kahne’s second pole in five Nationwide races in 2008 and his third pole in 10 races at Richmond.
Carl Edwards posted the second-fastest lap and will join Kahne on the front row after qualifying in 21.602 seconds, at an average speed of 124.988. It is his ninth top-10 start in 2008 and his fourth in seventh Richmond races.
Denny Hamlin will start third, posting his fourth top-five start in the past four races at Richmond races.
Mark Green qualified fourth as the fastest of the drivers that were required to make the field on time. He posted his
25th top-10 start in 237 Nationwide races. It is just his fifth top-five start and his best start
since he rolled off fifth at Rockingham in October 1998.
Landon Cassill (13th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.
