Hamlin overcomes obstacles to take victory

Denny Hamlin vowed to make it to the championship round of NASCAR’s playoffs, and nothing so far is getting in his way.

Not a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered playing basketball just days before the regular-season finale.

Not a horrible day of practice that resulted in an awful starting position for the opening round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Not a spin Sunday two laps into the race that dropped him to last in the field at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, and one lap down from the leaders.

Hamlin stepped up and once again showed his resilience by rallying for a surprise victory in the first race of the 10-race Chase. The win for Joe Gibbs Racing – a heavy favorite to win the championship – earned Hamlin an automatic berth into the second round of the playoffs.

“Go have some fun the next two weeks, that’s for sure. Takes some pressure off of us,” Hamlin said about his strategy in the near term.

It was a decidedly different mood for reigning champion Kevin Harvick, who vowed four days ago not to be intimidated by JGR’s recent muscle and said “we’re going to pound them into the ground” during the Chase.

Instead, contact with Jimmie Johnson on a restart caused a tire rub on Harvick’s car. He thought the issue had fixed itself, but his left rear tire blew two laps later and he was in the wall.

Harvick is last in the 16-driver field, and four drivers will be cut from the Chase in two weeks. Asked what he needs to do to stay in contention, he was blunt: “We’ve just got to go win one of these next two races.”

The trouble for Harvick was as surprising as the victory for Hamlin.

His rough day Friday in practice meant he had to start 29th in the race when qualifying was rained out. Hamlin said his toughest task was going to be showing patience in the early laps of the race as he tried to move a fast Toyota through traffic, but he spun trying to pick his way toward the front on the second lap.

Now last and a lap down, it seemed he had no shot at the win.

But his JGR team didn’t panic, and crew chief Dave Rogers used a gutsy call not to pit during the final caution to give Hamlin a shot at the victory.

Hamlin slid to the bottom of the track to make it three-wide as he jumped from third to first on the restart with five laps remaining. Once past Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch, he cruised to JGR’s ninth win in the last 12 races.

Carl Edwards rallied from a speeding penalty to finish second and give JGR and Toyota a 1-2 finish.

Kurt Busch, who was headed for the win until the final caution was called with 10 laps remaining, was third.

Formula One

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the Singapore Grand Prix and runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton retired mid-race, injecting new life into the fight for the Formula One title.

Vettel led from start to finish in a race that was temporarily interrupted by a fan wandering on the track.

Vettel’s third win of the season came by 1.4 seconds over Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was third, as all three finished in the positions they started at the Marina Bay street circuit.

NHRA

Antron Brown won the first Top Fuel final between black racers in NHRA history, beating J.R. Todd in the playoff-opening Carolina Nationals in Concord, North Carolina.

Brown raced to his fifth victory of the season, 36th overall in Top Fuel, and took over the points lead in his bid for a second season championship.

Brown left the starting line first at zMAX Dragway and sped to 3.832-second run at 311.56 mph. Todd trailed with a 4.063 at 286.32.

In Pro Stock, Erica Enders raced to her third consecutive victory, seventh of the season and 19th overall to pass Shirley Muldowney on NHRA’s career victory list. Enders also tied Angelle Sampey’s record for victories by a female racer in a season.

Enders beat Vicent Noble with a 6.581 at 210.97 in a Chevy Camaro.