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Virginia native Denny Hamlin had two victories at his home track entering Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, but his last win at the three fourths of a mile race track came six years ago in 2010. With last weekend’s Southern 500 winner Martin Truex Jr. dominating the first half of the race, Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx crew made adjustments on his Toyota in order to bring the fight to his Toyota teammate. After the adjustments were made and with Martin Truex Jr. experiencing pit road penalties, Hamlin was able to take the lead and dominate the latter half of the race. Hamlin had to hold of a fast charging Kyle Larson in overtime to score the victory. This victory marks the 29th time Denny Hamlin has visited Victory Lane in Sprint Cup Series and the third victory of 2016.
Below are highlights and turn by turn action from the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway by Last Lap Insider.
Lap 1/400 – The last race before The Chase is underway. Pole sitter Denny Hamlin leads the grid into Turn 1.
Lap 4/400 – Matt Kenseth passes Kyle Larson for the 2nd spot. Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman make slight contact exiting Turn 2.
Lap 13/400 – Ryan Blaney, who is one of the drivers on the outside of The Chase looking in, has a tire explode on his No. 21 Ford Fusion and is hard into the wall. Blaney has taken his mangled race car to the garage.
During pit stops Chase Elliott’s No. 24 team had difficulties with their air gun. Elliott had to make another pit stop to tighten the lugnuts on his Goodyear tires.
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Matt Kenseth are the first off pit road.
Lap 17/400 – Green flag is back in the air. Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. complete the top five.
Lap 40/400 – Kyle Larson has fallen to 5th while Martin Truex Jr. has worked his way to 3rd.
Lap 50/400 – Two drivers in Chase contention, Jamie McMurray and Ryan Newman are running 5th and 16th.
Lap 53/400 – Martin Truex Jr. has taken the lead from Denny Hamlin.
Lap 62/400 – Landon Cassill was having difficulties with his brakes so he has taken his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion to the garage for repairs.
Lap 70/400 – Drivers in Chase contention, Jamie McMurray 5th, Austin Dillon 6th, Kasey Kahne 14th, Ryan Newman 15th, Chris Buescher 28th.
Lap 85/400 – AJ Allmendinger spins out coming off Turn 4. Allmendinger was running 27th. This brings out the second caution.
Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch are the first off pit road.
During this round of pit stops Greg Biffle accidentally hits Tony Stewart on pitlane spinning the No. 14 Chevrolet around.
Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne were caught speeding and will serve a pass through penalty. Also Kurt Busch missed his pit stall and had to come back down pit road for a second time.
Lap 96/400 – The third caution of the evening comes out for Chase Elliott blowing a tire and hitting the wall.
A few laps prior to this accident Ryan Newman got into Jeff Gordon’s bumper sending the No. 88 into the No. 24. That contact inevitably cut down Elliott’s tire sending him into the wall.
This definitely puts Chase Elliott in a difficult position for the rest of the night as he is one of the drivers in contention of making The Chase.
Lap 102/400 – Martin Truex Jr. leads Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.
Lap 105/400 – Rickey Stenhouse Jr. Aric Almirola and Jimmie Johnson make contact with each other coming off Turn 4. Almirola has to come to pit road for a flat tire.
Lap 138/400 – Top 20 – 78, 20, 11, 18, 1, 2, 22, 42, 41, 19, 4, 6, 88, 3, 16, 31, 27, 17, 5, 14. Chase Elliott is currently 24th.
Lap 175/400 – Last week’s Southern 500 winner Martin Truex Jr. continues to dominate.
Lap 184/400 – Green flag pit stops have begun with Kyle Larson being the first to make a pit stop. Denny Hamlin came in for his stop and in doing so blocked Ryan Newman accidentally from pulling out of his pit box.
Lap 194/400 – Kyle Larson comes back down pit road for a loose wheel.
Lap 201/400 – The fourth caution of the night has come out for Jimmie Johnson blowing a tire and scrapping the wall on the front stretch. Johnson hadn’t yet made his green flag pit stop because he was hoping on a caution in order to gain track position. Unfortunately he was the caution.
Lap 222/400 – The fifth caution has come out for debris on the front stretch.
Kyle Larson will get the free pass in order to be back on the lead lap.
Martin Truex Jr. Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin are the first three off pit road. They seem to have the three best cars.
Jimmie Johnson has to come back down pit road for a uncontrolled tire violation. Brad Keselowski had to serve a penalty for speeding.
Lap 229/400 – Kurt Busch passes Martin Truex Jr. for the lead on the restart.
Lap 231/400 – Kurt Busch’s lead was short lived as Martin Truex Jr easily re-passes the older Busch brother for the lead.
strong>Lap 241/400 – The top 10 – 78, 18, 20, 11, 19, 41, 4, 1, 22, 88.
Lap 245/400 – David Ragan has a tire go flat on his No. 23 Toyota bringing out the sixth caution of the night.
Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards are the first three off pit road.
A great stop for Denny Hamlin, but a horrible stop for tonight’s denominator Martin Truex Jr. He falls to 5th.
Kevin Harvick has to serve a pass-through penalty for speeding. Matt Kenseth and Aric Almirola both had uncontrolled tires so they will also have to serve a pass-through penalty.
Lap 265/400 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. attempts to pass Paul Menard but the two make contact sending the No. 27 into the wall bringing out the seventh caution.
With Kyle Larson just taking two tires on this recent caution, he will gain eight positions and come out first.
Martin Truex Jr. continues to fall further back as he has to serve a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit lane.
Lap 279/400 – Casey Mears goes for a spin off the bumper of the No. 93. Caution has come out for the eighth time.
Kyle Larson is the only leader to hit pit road.
Lap 291/400 – Top 15 – 11, 41, 19, 2, 42, 18, 88, 22, 20, 6, 4, 5, 1, 3, 78.
Lap 293/400 – The ninth caution has come out for Michael Annett blowing a tire and slamming the wall.
Once again Denny Hamlin wins the race of pit road. Hamlin started on the pole giving him the very first pit stall. That first pit stall is certainly paying off during these pit stops.
Lap 297/400 – The top seven on the restart decided not to pit making Kyle Larson and Kasey Kahne the two new leaders. Martin Truex Jr. has fought his way back up to the third position after pit road difficulties.
100 laps to go – Martin Truex Jr. sails by Kasey Kahne for 2nd.
97 laps to go – Martin Truex Jr. has finally made his way back up to first.
91 laps to go – Chris Buescher makes a unscheduled pit stop because he thought he might have a tire going down.
78 laps to go – Carl Edwards goes for a spin off Turn 2 bringing out the tenth caution of the race. Edwards radioed to his crew that he had a tire going flat.
This time Chase Elliott and Ryan Newman get caught for speeding on pit road.
74 laps to go – AJ Allmendinger blows a tire and is into the wall entering Turn 1. Numerous blown tires and pit road penalties tonight.
68 laps to go – On the restart Brad Keselowski misses a shift causing him to make contact with Matt Kenseth entering Turn 1.
64 laps to go – The contact made between Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth ended up shredding Kenseth’s tire causing the tire to explode sending the No. 20 Toyota into the fence.
As of now Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott and Jaime McMurray are in The Chase by 25 to 32 points.
57 laps to go – Denny Hamlin holds on to the lead on the restart.
55 laps to go – David Ragan makes contact with AJ Allmendinger sending the No. 47 into a slide. This is now the 13th caution of the night. The record number of cautions at a Richmond race is 15.
47 laps to go – The 14th caution has been brought out for Matt Dibenedetto blowing another tire and slamming the wall.
37 laps to go – The Big One – Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman made contact going down the backstretch causing a chain-reaction collected numerous others. Dylan Lupton’s Toyota was actually sitting on top of Ryan Newman’s Chevrolet. Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Chris Buescher, Carl Edwards, Brian Scott, Dylan Lupton and David Ragan are all involved in this massive accident. All drivers involved were checked and released from the Infield Care Center.
This crash has brought out the red flag.
35 laps to go – After a 30-minute red flag the caution was brought back out.
32 laps to go – Kyle Busch makes it three-wide going into Turn 1 for the lead on the restart.
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr and Austin Dillon are the top 5.
28 laps to go – Danica Patrick makes contact with Kasey Kahne causing her to lose a few spots.
15 laps to go – Denny Hamlin continues to lead Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch.
Kasey Kahne is running 5th but he’s going to run out of time in order to win the race and get into The Chase. The last time Kahne made The Chase was in 2014.
2 laps to go – With just two laps to go another driver experiences a tire blow. This time it’s Regan Smith. This is now a record breaking 16th caution.
The race is going into overtime.
Overtime Restart – On the overtime restart with two laps remaining, Denny Hamlin rockets out front as everyone behind him battles for position.
Greg Biffle gets spun on the backstretch but doesn’t bring out a caution.
Kyle Larson, who restarted 10th after pitting for fresh new tires during that caution, weaves his way in and out of cars battling his way back up to the front.
Final Lap – Kyle Larson would fall just a bit short has Denny Hamlin is able to hold him off to score the victory in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. This is Denny Hamlin’s third victory at Richmond International Raceway but his first since 2010. This also marks the 29th time Denny Hamlin has visited Victory Lane in Sprint Cup Series.
Kyle Larson settles for 2nd and Martin Truex Jr, who dominated the early portion of this race, finishes 3rd.
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Tony Stewart, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, and Jamie McMurray all make the 2016 Chase for the championship.
Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne miss making The Chase by just 43 points.
Full Federated Auto Parts 400 Race Results:
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Kyle Larson
3. Martin Truex Jr
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Kasey Kahne
7. Jamie McMurray
8. Kurt Busch
9. Kyle Busch
10. Joey Logano
11. Jimmie Johnson
12. Michael Mcdowell
13. Austin Dillon
14. Trevor Bayne
15. Danica Patrick
16. Jeff Gordon
17. Aric Almirola
18. Chase Elliott
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
20. AJ Allmendinger
21. Casey Mears
22. Clint Bowyer
23. Greg Biffle
24. Chris Buescher
25. Dylan Lupton
26. Reed Sorenson
27. Jeffrey Earnhardt
28. Ryan Newman – Crash
29. Regan Smith – Crash
30. Josh Wise
31. Michael Annett
32. Carl Edwards – Crash
33. Tony Stewart – Crash
34. David Ragan – Crash
35. Brian Scott – Crash
36. Matt Dibenedetto – Crash
37. Landon Cassill
38. Matt Kenseth – Crash
39. Ryan Blaney – Crash
40. Paul Menard – Crash
The next race for the Sprint Cup Series is the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400” at the Chicagoland Speedway September 18, at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN. For more Sprint Cup updates check out @lastlapinsider on Instagram.
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