Race Weekend Central

Denny Hamlin Obliterates Field to Win 2015 ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond

If you only tune into the Sprint Cup Series every weekend, these recent winners for the Xfinity Series have been rather familiar.

If you’re Denny Hamlin, your neck is feeling better after leading 248 of 250 laps in Friday night’s ToyotaCare 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hamlin told FOX Sports 1 in victory lane. “This is a big weekend but one thing we all have to think about is Steve Byrnes’ family. He is a big part of our sport and we are definitely thinking of him.”

The dominating victory stands as a significant mark for Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing.

“(This is the) 100th Xfinity win for Toyota, that is a big one,” said Hamlin who starts second for JGR in Saturday’s Sprint Cup race. “I was able to get the 100th Sprint Cup win for those guys at Loudon a few years ago at JGR.”

Joey Logano, who led flag-to-flag at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend, was on the other side of the coin this weekend, finishing second, 3.7 seconds behind Hamlin’s race-winning Toyota.

“I now know what it feels like to be on the other end after last weekend,” Logano said. “I thought he was very fast in practice and it apparently transferred over to the race.”

Logano spent a majority of the race battling 18-year-old Erik Jones for second as Hamlin drove away.

“As soon as (the restart) went, I could hang (with Hamlin) for maybe five or six laps, barely hanging, and then off he’d go,” Logano continued. “Then after that you could tell he was just saving his tires. His car was so fast he didn’t have to drive hard.”

Behind Hamlin and Logano was Regan Smith in third, Jones in fourth with Chase Elliott rounding out the top five.

“We just couldn’t turn the center like we needed to late in the run,” said Elliott who lacked the speed to battle beyond fifth. “That was all I had, I was giving her all I had there the whole night.”

Daniel Suarez, Brian Scott, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon and Landon Cassill rounded out the top 10.

For Cassill, it was his first top 10 of 2015 for JD Motorsports.

The moment of the night, unfortunately, came during a lap 113 pit stop for Brendan Gaughan’s No. 62 team. Following a fuel spill, a massive fire was ignited, sending three crew members from Richard Childress Racing and TriStar Motorsports to the infield care center and local hospital.

Kevin Harvick looked to continue his 29-race streak of top 10s in the Xfinity Series but struggled to an 18th-place finish.

The points leader exiting the Virginia short track is Ty Dillon, who leads by eight points over Elliott. Chris Buescher finished 20th, losing his tie for the points lead and falling to third in the championship standings.

Next week, the Xfinity Series hangs up the short-track helmets and picks up their restrictor plates to head to Talladega Superspeedway.

2015 TOYOTACARE 250 RACE RESULTS

About the author

Growing up in Easton, Pa., Zach Catanzareti has grown his auto racing interest from fandom to professional. Joining Frontstretch in 2015, Zach enjoys nothing more than being at the track, having covered his first half-season of 18 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2017. With experience behind the wheel, behind the camera and in the media center, he thrives on being an all-around reporter.

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Ron Schwalbe

WOW !!!!
Another suspenseful, dramatic, exciting, dominating short field Cup race — Logano last week, Hamlin tonight — what unbelievable result can we expect NEXT week ??
I can’t WAIT —
Thank GOD , those annoying Sportsman, Busch, Nationwide, Xfxfxfx ?? guys don’t get any of those points or dollars —
Be a LOT more exciting if they weren’t even there — LUUUV these 2-3-4 car races SOOOOO entertaining !!

JohnQ

Amen Brother! So exciting it makes you wonder why EVERY other competitive endeavor known to man has classes. I mean who besides everybody wouldn’t pay to watch a 220 lb fighter batter 150 lb Middleweights and then dance around like he actually accomplished something. These fantasy reports are almost as annoying as the races without racing that are the NASCAR lesser series. Just once wouldn’t you like to see a one sentence Frontstretch review that read “Well that sucked, but no harm, nobody watched anyway”. Bryansk NASCAR!

J. Smith

You failed to mention a huge headline that affected finishing positions in the race. NASCAR throwing the caution on two occasions for a car running high on the track and something almost happening. This is a perfect example of manipulation to make the “show” better. I’m all for a good show but not when it’s manufactured like this. Why is this not a headline? Frontstretch is my only racing site and y’all have been critical of this in the past so what’s up now? Tired of beating the dead horse or have y’all joined the NASCAR team? When a so called short track race results in virtually no bent sheet metal or tempers flaring there is a big problem with the show but throwing BS caution flags is not the cure.

Capt Spaulding

Think tonights crowd at the rainout will be a big as last nights?

rg72

I think all this criticism is quite unfounded. After all, we had three times as many leaders as the week before.

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