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The Pit Stop


May 11, 2012 9:59 PM

Joey Steels Race At Darlington

denny Hamlin 2012 Darlington.jpgThe Nationwide Series drivers are at the track that is "too tough to tame" for 200 miles of racing. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. picked off the poll for the event in qualifying that occurred Friday Afternoon.

"Work on backing the car up," said Austin Dillion on the race.

The green flag drops and at alp 2 it was caution time as Ryan Blaney smacks the wall. Behind him Chase Miller and Jeremy Clements also wreck. "Got loose there," said Rayn Blaney.

After the green flag dropped again we got into a good green flag run that saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. lead some more laps as Denny Hamlin got hot. Denny then took over the race lead at lap 19. The first caution finally came out on lap 35 for Mike Wallace that blew a tire.

The leaders pitted and Denny Hamin won the race off pit road with Joey Logano coming out second. The race restarted and Joey was able to win the lead of the race, but it did not last long and Denny Hamlin was back leading it. Then at lap 46 T.J Bell wrecks to bring out the caution.

The race restarts and in a couple of laps Denny Hamlin is back leading more laps. By lap 80 Denny Hamlin had around a 3 second lead on the field. At lap 91 it was the start of green flag pit stops. Kurt Busch got to lead a lap during this time. Joey Logano, Brendan Gaughan, and Justin Allgaier also got lead laps. Justin kept the lead until lap 101 and Denny was back in the lead of the race.

With 309 laps left Denny Hamlin still had an over 5 second plus lead over Kurt Busch who was in second place. The caution finally comes out with only 22 laps left as Kurt Busch blows a right front tire and then hits the wall. Joey Logano moved into second right before Kurt blew the tire.

The leaders pit and Elliott Sadler who takes two tires wins the race off pit road. Denny Hamlin came off second. Race restarted with 15 laps left and Elliott Sadler was able to get the lead with Joey Logano getting second and Denny Hamlin getting third.
With 12 laps left Denny Hamlin passed Joey Logan for second. On the next lap Brendan Gaughan hits the wall to bring out the next caution. The race restarts and right away Elliott Sadler got dumped into the wall.

"He(Joey Logano) bumped drafted me," said Elliott Sadler. "Heartbreaking." He also stated it that it killed us in the points.
This brought out the green white checker finish and the race restarted Brad Keselowski help pushed Joey Logano into the race lead and Denny Hamlin was catching up to Joey on the final lap, but ran out of time as Joey won the race.

"This is such a cool place to win," said Joey Logano. He also apologized for wrecking Eliott Sadler.

"Feel terrible for Eliott," said Denny Hamlin.

"Good way to finish the day," said Brad Keselowski.

Sam Hornish Jr. stated his car was really loose most of the race.

"Decent night," said Danica Patrick. She finished the race in 12th place and moved up to 10th place in the points. Also for the second race in a row she out performed Travis Pastrana who finished 18th.

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