Auto racing: Wins have eluded Hamlin
While Denny Hamlin has avoided the dreaded sophomore jinx, he’s not satisfied with being second in the NASCAR Nextel Cup season points going into today’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Last year’s top rookie wants to win races – the sooner, the better.
It’s not for the glory, though. Hamlin is thinking championship, and winning races could be the key to that, thanks to NASCAR’s new Chase for the Championship format.
NASCAR expanded the 2007 Chase from 10 to 12 drivers and added a seeding process in which the eligible drivers will start the postseason with a base of 5,000 points plus 10 additional points for each victory during the 26-race regular season.
Eight of the current top 12 have won races this season, including four apiece by points leader Jeff Gordon and fifth-place Jimmie Johnson.
Despite his exalted spot in the points, Hamlin has yet to win in 2007, meaning that if the Chase began with today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300, he would find himself ninth in the points.
Not even the 100-point penalties NASCAR levied against Hendrick Motorsports teammates Gordon and Johnson earlier this week in the wake of their cars failing inspection in Sonoma would make a significant difference under the new format.
“If we were to go into the Chase right now, we’d be 40 behind,” Hamlin said. “We feel like we’re running well enough, we could make that up if we run the same way that we have all year. We would just like to start closer to those guys.”
The race today, the 17th of the season, should provide Hamlin a good chance to narrow the gap.
Busch Series
Kevin Harvick held off a late challenge by Carl Edwards to grab his second NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season at New Hampshire International Speedway in Louden, N.H.
The two-time Busch champion, who had not won since the opening weekend of the season when he swept the Busch and Nextel Cup races at Daytona, picked up his 28th career victory in Busch.
Juan Pablo Montoya was running in fifth place when he and Clint Bowyer collided on lap 165 of 200 on the 1.058-mile oval, bringing out the last of six yellow flags in the race.
Craftsman Trucks
At Memphis, Tenn., Travis Kvapil finally passed a spinning Brad Keselowski with nine laps to go and pulled away on the restart to capture the Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly 200, his second win in three weeks.
Kvapil had stalked Keselowski for more than a half-dozen laps before taking the lead on 192 when he got into the bumper of Keselowski, who was replacing suspended driver Ted Musgrave. The contact coming out of Turn 4 sent Keselowski spinning toward the infield, and Kvapil swept by to take the lead.
Grand Prix
Felipe Massa outpaced Lewis Hamilton to take the pole position for today’s French Grand Prix in Magny Cours, France.
Massa timed 1 minute, 15.034 seconds on the 2.74-mile circuit for his fourth Formula One pole of the season and the seventh of his career. He had three straight earlier this season.
Hamilton was second for McLaren in 1:15.104.