Hamlin wins at Texas, grabs 2nd win of the season (3-31-19)

By: Becca Cottingham

Headline Photo From: mrn.com

NASCAR is in Texas where everything is bigger and faster. With speeds over 170 miles per hour. Texas Motor Speedway is experiencing some cooler than usual weather which is making tire pressure take longer than usual to get to where most drivers need them. Early in the race, we watch Erik Jones spin out and bring out the first caution. Thankfully he was able to keep his car off the wall. During this caution, Kyle Busch’s team made a pit road mistake. Kyle Busch drove right past his pit stall. This only moved him back one spot in the lineup. But he is off the sequence he wanted to be on.

Jimmie Johnson was strong in both practice and qualifying. He has managed to lead more laps than he did in all of 2018. So it appears that Hendrick Motorsports has that car dialed in where he needs it. Jimmie did have to give up the lead in order to make green flag stops. Green flag pit stops appear to be making drivers fall almost a lap down. We saw our first pit road penalty with Denny Hamlin to fast exiting. Mistakes on pit road are costly. After everyone cycled through, Joey Logano was able to hold Jimmie Johnson off for stage one win.

Kyle Larson’s hit on the outside wall did not look like it was major. However, it was enough to cause his car to catch fire. This shut down pit road while the fire crew was on pit road. Speaking of pit road this is where most drivers are struggling at Texas. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Kevin Harvick all had pit road penalties. After Denny Hamlin won stage two.

A late caution in stage three leaves teams with a just under eighty laps to go. All the cars were going to have to make at least one final stop in order to get to the end of the run. The drivers went through green lap pit stops and Denny Hamlin’s crew was able to make up for the multitude of mistakes. After two penalties Denny Hamlin was able to come back from the pack to get his second win of the season.

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Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

Sunday, April 7 2pm