Times wires
Sunday, May 1, 2011
RICHMOND, Va. — Denny Hamlin, in desperate need of a victory, had no issues with settling for second behind teammate Kyle Busch in Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.
Why not? The start of the season has been so bad for Hamlin, an eight-race winner last season and the runnerup to Jimmie Johnson in points, that coming in second was a huge step.
It was his first top-five finish this season and only his second top-10 in nine races.
"I'm ecstatic, to be honest with you," he said. "You can't be mad at second place. Yeah, I want to win, trust me. It burns that you didn't win. But how we didn't win I can live with."
Hamlin didn't win because he'd shared so much information over the years in Joe Gibbs Racing debriefs, which helped Busch improve at Richmond. Busch's victory Saturday was his third consecutive in Richmond's spring race, and he and Hamlin have combined to win the past five races at the short track.
Busch admitted Hamlin's tutorials have helped him immensely, and said he picked up something specific from Hamlin's victory in September.
"Denny did do a nice job at helping me here a little bit last fall," Busch said. "I used the information. I kind of used it all throughout the race."
Hamlin's poor start to the season led to a report that a swap of crews for Hamlin and teammate Joey Logano was "imminent," something JGR rebuked. Hamlin has stood by crew chief Mike Ford, as has the rest of the team.
"I think they have faith in each other," team president J.D. Gibbs said. "We've been through it with all of our drivers over the years. So I think to have a good run at a place where you should run well, I think that was encouraging."
INDYCAR: The Sao Paulo 300 was postponed until today (8 a.m., Versus) because of heavy rain. The street race barely got underway in wet conditions — and saw two major wrecks and several spins within a few laps — before the rain got heavier, bringing out a red flag. The race was stopped for more than two hours and officials tried to restart it, but conditions never got any better and the event was postponed after just 14 laps, 11 under yellow.
NHRA: Vincent Nobile, 19, became the youngest winner in the 41-year history of the Pro Stock class, beating Rodger Brogdon in the final at the NHRA Spring Nationals in Baytown, Texas. Del Worsham (Top Fuel), Jeff Arend (Funny Car), and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won their divisions.
EAST BAY RACEWAY: Forrest Gough won the Late Model main event Saturday in Gibsonton.