Ultimately Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had just enough fuel to claim the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway and do one celebratory series of burnouts in front of the huge grandstand crowd before running out of gas on his encore celebration and needing a tow to his ultimate destination: Victory Lane.
The 44-year-old put on a master class in fuel saving and end-of-race pressure at the two-mile oval – taking his third win of the season and 57th of his career. Hamlin crossed the line 1.099s ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher and his JGR teammate, Ty Gibbs, after the day’s most dominant driver, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, had to pit for fuel on the last lap.
“No, not really,’’ Hamlin said, insisting he wasn’t overly worried about running out of fuel in the closing laps. “I wanted to get the lead and obviously he (Byron) was doing a really good job defending.
“Sorry, but I beat your favorite driver,’’ a grinning Hamlin – in his 701st career series start – addressed the rowdy Michigan crowd.
“This whole team just stepped up,’’ he said. “Great job. We’ve been so fast this entire year, just haven’t finished it for one reason or another, so it feels good to come to Michigan where we’ve been so close the last couple of years.
“Such a gratifying day to restart 11th or 12th and charge to the front,’’ added Hamlin, who has now won multiple races in the last seven consecutive seasons.
With 20 laps remaining, Hamlin had made his way from 11th place to fifth in the running order, behind the day’s most dominant cars – Carson Hocevar in the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet and Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Both Hocevar, a Michigan native racing for his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, and Byron were told by their crew chiefs they were going to run out of fuel before the end of the race. Instead of a fuel issue, however, Hocevar – who led 32 laps – had to pit from the race lead with 19 laps remaining for a flat tire.
Hendrick’s Byron, who led a race best 98 of the 200 laps, inherited the lead from Hocevar and then had to try to fend off Hamlin, who methodically started moving forward, racing Byron hard and forcing the championship leader out of any sort of fuel-save mode.
