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Hamlin, FedEx Racing Bit By Cautions - Finish 27th at Infineon
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Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team had their hopes dashed by an early caution during Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, then had their plans for a late recovery undone by a string of on-track incidents that ultimately left them frustrated with a 27th-place finish. The #11 FedEx Office Camry looked ready to challenge for the win, with Hamlin skillfully guiding it into the top-ten before the first set of cautions. Unfortunately the caution fell at the wrong time and Hamlin simply couldn't maneuver his way through the field without falling victim to a spin in turn 11, and contact that eventually left him stranded in 27th place when the checkered flag flew.
Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch returned to his winning ways with a great drive to the front and dominating performance. David Gilliland and Jeff Gordon filled out the top three while Hamlin and Busch's JGR teammate Tony Stewart - who also looked poised for a top-three finish before being spun out of contention - finished tenth.
The 27th-place finish drops Hamlin from sixth to eighth in the Sprint Cup standings heading to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend.
Road course racing is riddled with potential problems. In addition to obvious perils of the 1.99-mile, 12-turn course with a combination of fast and slow turns and several elevation changes, fuel mileage also plays a major role. With all of those factors in mind, Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx team prepared a car that was up to the task. From the drop of the green, Hamlin charged forward, picking up two spots within two laps and forcing his way into the top-ten by lap seven.
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On lap twelve Hamlin ducked past both Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle to claim the eighth spot then worked past Ryan Newman for seventh place on lap seventeen.
After passing Gordon for the sixth spot on lap 18, Hamlin was posting the fastest times on the track and looked to reel in the leaders by the time the field reached their fuel windows.
Mike Ford made the call to bring Hamlin into the pit on lap 30 to set up a two-stop strategy for the 110-lap race, and it appeared the #11 team would be very well positioned for the long run. Many other teams were on a similar strategy and had already pitted when Ford and spotter Curtis Markham gave Hamlin the orders to come in. Unfortunately, the first caution of the day came out before Hamlin could pit and he was forced to stay on the track, meaning he would have to pit under caution with the rest of the cars and sacrifice valuable positions to the cars that had already made their stops.
By the time the field cycled through their stops and lined up for the restart, Hamlin had been shuffled back to 19th-place and faced the daunting task of pushing the #11 FedEx Office Camry forward through a crowded course.
Now back in the pack, Hamlin continued to drive forward and was making up ground before falling victim to the slowest, but arguably trickiest corner on the track and spinning the FedEx machine in the hairpin turn #11. As is customary with road course racing, he was forced to watch the balance of the field pass him by before finding a place to pull back into line. The result was the loss of 15 spots and the prospect of being mired in traffic for the rest of the race.
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Hamlin visited pit road on lap 67 for fuel and tires and had just rejoined the field when the caution came out again. Already stuck at the tail end of the lead lap, Ford called Hamlin in for one last splash of fuel before sending him out restart 32nd on lap 73. The team felt comfortable knowing they could make the end on fuel, but the caution had provided that same comfort to the rest of the field as well so any advantage gained by the first pit stop was nullified. Unlike the 2007 race at Infineon, the 2008 edition would not be decided by fuel mileage.
The following green flag segments provided Hamlin with great opportunities to make up positions and he took full advantage, working past slower cars and methodically picking his spots to pass. A caution lap on 103 saw Hamlin holding down the 20th spot and looking at forcing his way into the top ten but as the old saying goes "cautions breed cautions" and the ensuing restarts led to a lot of on-track contact.
A restart four laps to go ultimately led to Hamlin being spun from behind after contact from the #41 car - which had also been pushed from behind in a turn-two stack up.
Though not suffering damage, he lost several positions and, after an extended red flag caution so track officials could clean up oil on the track, Hamlin restarted 27th for a green-white-checkered and carefully brought the #11 Camry to the finish.
It was tough result to take for a team that has a very good road course record and working to stay in the thick of the championship chase. They will look to rebound next weekend when they return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the site of their lone 2007 win.