Hamlin wins Xfinity race in Richmond

Hamlin celebrates his dominant win

Domination must be contagious.

Six days after Joey Logano led all 300 laps in a NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Bristol, Denny Hamlin led 248 of 250 circuits in winning Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

The only two laps that spoiled a Hamlin no-hitter were Brian Scott’s dive bomb off Turn 4 to lead Lap 154 by inches and Elliott Sadler’s contrarian fuel strategy, which allowed him to lead Lap 226 during a cycle of green-flag pit stops before Hamlin, on fresh tires, roared back past him on Lap 227.

Aside from those fleeting moments, however, it was no contest.

“He was so fast—we had nothing for him," said Logano, who could keep Hamlin in sight for five or six laps after a restart, only to have the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota drive away. “We had a second-place car. That’s where it was, just second place.

“I know what it feels like to be on the other end of the butt-whipping now. It’s not as much fun from this side. But congrats to them. They deserved it, obviously. We didn’t have a shot."

In winning the 12th NASCAR XFINITY Series race of his career, his first of the season and his third at Richmond, Hamlin held leads as large as 6.5 seconds and crossed the finish line 3.719 seconds ahead of Logano, with just eight cars on the lead lap.

Regan Smith was third, followed by Erik Jones, Chase Elliott and rookie Daniel Suarez, as Joe Gibbs Racing placed three drivers in the top six (Hamlin, Jones and Suarez).

The victory was the 100th for Toyota in the XFINITY Series.

“The 100th XFINITY win for Toyota—that’s a big one," Hamlin said. “I was able to get the 100th [NASCAR Sprint] Cup win at Loudon a few years ago for those guys and JGR. This is a big win for everyone. I'm glad to be working with Wheels again (crew chief Mike Wheeler). He put a rocket under us tonight."

Given the way he ran on Friday, Hamlin seemed fully recovered from the neck spasms that sidelined him during last Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Bristol.

Quick action by emergency workers prevented a potential tragedy on pit road during pit stops under the second caution of the race.

A spark ignited spilled fuel behind the car of Brendan Gaughan, engulfing rear tire changer Anthony O’Brien in a fireball that was quickly extinguished, Nevertheless, O’Brien, Gaughan’s fueler, Josh Wittman, and Clifford Turner, a crew member form Eric McClure’s team were taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation as a result of the incident.

Note: Series leader Ty Dillon finished ninth and holds an eight-point lead over second-place Elliott, the defending series champion. Chris Buescher, who entered the event tied with Dillon, finished 20th and fell to third in the standings, 11 points back.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 20 Hisense Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How was your race tonight?

"Yeah, it was really good. There's not much you could complain about. The car was flawless and this reminds me a lot of the night I had in Cup a few years ago where we led every lap but one I think and we had a flat tire with 15 laps to go, so it reminded me of that and we were just thinking about all the scenarios in your head of how you're going to lose it, but luckily all the cautions fell the way we needed them to and we were able to get a victory."

Did you think you beat Brian Scott to the line when he passed you?

"I'm pretty sure I did beat him because I did want to lead every single lap, but I think I lost the lead on the green flag pit stops to the guys that stayed out. You wanted to have a perfect weekend sweeping all the qualifying and practices and just came up two laps short."

Hamlin gets Toyota's 100th win

Getty Images for NASCAR

How does it feel to claim Toyota's 100th NXS victory?

"Absolutely, Toyota has been such a big part of Joe Gibbs Racing and NASCAR and they've propelled this team to what it is and I'm proud to get 100 for them."

How strong was the race car?

"It was a great day – right from the very start I knew I had some great speed. That's the key to victory. It's no tricks or anything like that – it's just you have to have a fast car. Mike (Wheeler, crew chief) and these guys, they gave me something special tonight and we were able to dominate with it. You don't get these cars that often – almost never. Me and him and a car with Mike Ford (former crew chief) like this in the Cup Series a few years ago and then we had a flat with 15 (laps) to go. Of course, that runs through your mind with how you can mess this up, but luckily everything worked out for us and obviously it was a dominating victory."

How are you feeling after last week and are you 100 percent this weekend?

"That was one of the key decisions from last week was that we knew we had a big week ahead of us coming up here at Richmond and I needed to be 100 percent for that. I think we made the right decision and obviously it's all paying off so far. All the cars I've driven here so far this weekend at Richmond in both the Cup and XFINITY Series has been very, very strong. Looking forward to it and it's starting off as a great weekend – wish I would have got that Cup pole. I had my eyes on trying to sweep that, but looking forward to tomorrow night. You have to cherish these wins. It's been a long time since I've been in victory lane in the XFINITY Series so you have to enjoy them."

Was there anything you struggled with in the race?

"It looked like restarts were my biggest thing. I wasn't getting through the gears well or something on the front straightaway and it seemed like guys would really get good restarts on me. I knew if I could just get past really about the first five laps of a restart that I would be able to set the pace from there. The 2 (Brian Scott) got around us and immediately I thought that we were not going to lead every lap and so I tried to cross him over and luckily got back by him to try to do it, but with our pit sequence we weren't able to lead them all, but you can't be greedy. This is a huge win and you just don't have weekends like we had this weekend.

Does this victory give you confidence for tomorrow's Cup race?

"I'm just very encouraged by our short track program. It's been very frustrating racing here over the last couple years and really not having cars that are capable of winning and you always want to perform well in front of the hometown fans. I haven't done that in quite a while. The good news is that it looks like between Matt's (Kenseth) win last week, we won Martinsville – we obviously have all good cars for tomorrow hopefully. I think we've taken the turn on our short track program. Not only that, this is a big win for the entire Joe Gibbs Racing XFINITY program as well. They work just as hard on their program as we do. There's some things that correlate and normally I don't try to mix match any information between the two, but the XFINITY car definitely helped us with some Cup stuff during practice. We'll asses that and try to win tomorrow."

Are you proud to have claimed Toyota's 100th NXS victory?

"It's really big. Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief) was actually with us when we won 100 for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup program in Loudon (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) and it was a great day and really Toyota has – their unwavered support and what they've done, it's just big when you have the Toyota weekend here at Richmond, you're able to sweep these practices and win the race in dominating fashion. It's such a big weekend for everyone at Toyota and I didn't know that they had 99 wins and they told me before the race, 'Hey, if things go well, it's 100.' I'm like, 'Whoa, whoa. Don't.' I'm very superstitious when it comes to that kind of stuff. I didn't know when it was 99 on the Cup side for JGR. I'm just happy I was able to do it for them because they've been a huge supporter of mine since 2008 when they came over to Joe Gibbs Racing and really they've taken both our Cup and our XFINITY program to the next level. It's good to see Ed (Laukes, vice president of marketing, performance and guest experience, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A) and a lot of these executives here that don't get to travel every weekend and it's obviously big for that reason. By the way, it's also Hisense's first race – a new partner for Joe Gibbs Racing – and hopefully we'll have them back. If you don't mind, I'd like to run this race in the fall. We've got a pretty good setup I'd like to run again. I'm not sure if I'm slated to do that or not. The seat's taken? Oh well. I'll work on that."

Do you like the short track swing in the 2015 schedule?

"I'd like to race short tracks every week. That'd be great. I think that the schedule has gotten better for sure. I think things are a little different in the XFINITY program. They get a few more weeks off, but on the Cup side of things I definitely like having that West Coast swing and now you kind of work these short tracks in the mid-Atlantic, so I think it's definitely a good thing. If we could just run about 30 (short track) races that would be great."

MIKE WHEELER, crew chief, No. 20 Hisense Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What type of momentum do you have with this team?

"It definitely took some time to get going and we've definitely been on a roll lately. Kind of had this race marked off for a little while being Denny's (Hamlin) hometown and a track that we've dominated before. I not only wanted to win this for my old friend Denny, but also my colleague Denny – we've been racing for 10 years together. It was a big win and hopefully we can keep the momentum going."

Did you have the setup for this car done weeks ahead of the race?

"Probably about a month ago – car selection is one thing and then some theories behind it. Every week we look closely at the race track setup, but honestly once you come to Monday the week of the race you really hit it hard and evaluating what you can for the setup. There were a lot of good notes from the 54 team last year – the success that they've had, but at the same point I've always told everybody that I planned on having to beat Kyle (Busch) this year and having to win with guys that aren't Kyle. We are doing some things that are a little bit different, but honestly their notes are very helpful and it's been working pretty good so far."