Hamlin again a Monday winner
FORT WORTH, Texas — Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart walked together toward pit road from the mangled messes that their cars had become after a spectacular race-changing wreck.
The frustration was obvious on the face of Gordon, who had already led six times for 124 laps and was trying to get back to the front when the nine-car crash happened on the Texas Motor Speedway frontstretch. Stewart, the polesitter who had led 74 laps, took the blame.
"Feel bad about it, about doing something stupid like that," Stewart said afterward. "I didn't plan on getting loose, but it is 100 percent my fault."
After the two front-runners made contact in a tight pack to help trigger the wreck and bring out the red flag, hobbling Denny Hamlin held off Sprint Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson to win the 12-lap sprint to the finish line Monday.
Three weeks after winning another rain-postponed Cup race, and since having surgery to repair the torn ACL in his left knee, Hamlin gingerly climbed out of his car in Victory Lane with his 10th career victory.
Two days after the Monday victory at Martinsville, Hamlin had surgery on the knee he injured playing basketball in January.
The Easter weekend break provided some recovery time, but he was back in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the entire race last weekend. He completed 376 laps at the mile Phoenix International Raceway. He bypassed a chance to get out of the cockpit during an extended stop for repairs, even though a relief driver was standing by and the team two laps down.
"Easiest thing to do is just get out and let him take over," Hamlin said. "I did it for team morale, and obviously it paid off this weekend. We had a strong day on pit road. ... I think it just showed a little bit of courage for those guys. I knew they would give their left leg for me, and I was willing to do the same thing for them."
Hamlin, who said his knee is only about 60 percent healed, started 29th in the 334-lap, 501-mile race. He didn't lead until going in front a half-lap after the final restart and staying there.
On the first lap after a restart with 18 laps left — following yellow-flag stops when Stewart was among the drivers who took only two tires and Gordon took four — they ended up three-wide with Gordon in the middle and Johnson on the inside coming out of Turn 4.
Stewart got loose in the pack and there was contact with Gordon, who had three-time Texas winner Carl Edwards coming up behind and trying to follow him. While Stewart said it was all his fault, Edwards took some of the blame as well.
"Every second, every position counts on those restarts with that few of laps to go. I saw Tony backing up and then he got loose. I was trying not to get in to him. ... I got clipped in the right rear and turned me in the wall," Gordon said. "Gosh, what a race car we had. That is what I am bummed out the most about."
