Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team had the deck stacked against them on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway – starting from the back of the field and then suffering an early cut tire that forced them off the lead lap only 60 laps in.  Despite the long odds, the team never stopped working and it paid off in an impressive fifth-place finish that keeps Hamlin in the thick of the Sprint Cup Series championship race.


The stats will likely never show the exact number of cars Hamlin passed over the course of 500 laps at the demanding .533-mile high-banked oval at Bristol, but it’s no secret the Chesterfield (Va.) native would have liked the chance to pass a few more before taking the checkered flag in the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota.


“It was definitely a good day for the FedEx Ground team,” said Hamlin after the race.  We had a good car.  We just never got an opportunity to really start up there and start on the outside line with those guys.  I think we got up to fifth and had a bad last pit stop that put us back to 11th or so and then we had to work our way slowly to the front from there.  The race really wasn’t long enough for us.”


By lap 62 Hamlin was running 25th, however on the next lap he cut a left front tire, lost a lap and was relegated to 38th place.  It was at this point that the real work began for Hamlin as he slowly and methodically carved his way back through the field, onto the lead lap and into the top five by the end.  By virtue of his well-deserved fifth-place finish, Hamlin moves into fourth place in NASCAR Sprint Cup points as the series takes a weekend off before heading to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Labor Day weekend.


Kyle Busch held off Mark Martin for his 16th Sprint Cup win and the result he needed to put him back into Chase contention.  Martin, who led a race-high 240 laps, had one last shot at Busch as the laps counted down but ultimately settled for second on the night.  Marcos Ambrose and Greg Biffle joined Hamlin in filling out the top five.


Hamlin and Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano endured a trying night at Bristol, eventually finishing 34th.


Following the race, Hamlin recapped the eventful 500-lap race:


“When we had the tire problem, I knew we could still rebound.  We were going to have to get it back the hard way.  We got the ‘lucky dog’ -- it seemed like it took 200 laps to get that.  I wasn’t passed under green all race, not one car passed us under green.  We don’t have a scratch on us.  We had a good car; we just didn’t have enough time. We got back early with that flat tire and just took a long time to get the FedEx Ground Toyota back up on the lead lap.  Once we did that, we just passed a bunch of cars all day.  I don’t remember passing this many cars on a race day.  It just took a little while to get up front and we just needed a little longer run there at the end.”


On Lap 100, Hamlin, running in 37th place was the first car one lap down and desperately needed a yellow flag to get the “lucky dog” to move onto the lead lap.  Hamlin would have to wait until lap 163 when Bobby Labonte spun just in front of him to once again have the chance to race the leaders on the same lap, and from that point on, Hamlin smartly moved up on the leaderboard.


When the green flew for the restart on lap 170, Hamlin was scored in the 29th position and the steady march up the leaderboard began.  By lap 200, Hamlin had the FedEx Office Toyota in 20th place.  At the halfway mark, lap 250, Hamlin had cracked the top fifteen to claim 13th-place, and by the time Hamlin crossed the start/finish line for the 282nd time, he was running in the top-ten.


Then a long green-flag period worked to Hamlin’s advantage as by lap 342 he was running in sixth place, his highest position of the evening to that point.  The yellow flew and Hamlin pitted on lap 356 for four tires and fuel with the #11 car leaving the pits in fifth behind Jimmie Johnson, Martin, Kurt Busch and eventual winner Kyle Busch.


At the 400 lap mark Hamlin was still running fifth and then on lap 420 the yellow flew for rain.  As the leaders pitted on lap 423 a variety of strategies were executed up and down pit road – some teams stayed out wanting the rain to continue while other took just two tires.  Crew chief Mike Ford called Hamlin in for four tires and enough fuel to get him to the end.


When the rain subsided, Hamlin restarted in 13th and once again began his drive to the front, getting up to eighth place before rain once again brought out the yellow on lap 479.  Hamlin had a strong restart and two laps after the restart on lap 487 he was scored in seventh.  Just when Hamlin seemed to have the momentum to continue to move up the yellow, then the red, flag flew to stop the race when Michael Waltrip crashed on lap 492.


After cleaning up the accident and waiting for the rain to stop, NASCAR threw the green for the final time on lap 496 and Hamlin smartly made his last pass of the evening on Dale Earnhardt Jr. to earn a very-good fifth place in the final race results.


The team now takes a week off before heading to Atlanta in two weeks time.