Langley Speedway was the short track in which Denny Hamlin got his start on his way up to stardom. After a few years of planning and organization to get the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown running once again at his track of choice, 200 laps after the green flag flew on Thursday night he was the one doing donuts and an extensive burnout for the impressive assembly of fans in attendance.
Hamlin displayed that he had the car to beat over the distance, but had to muscle his way past multiple-time track champion C.E. Falk III in the closing stages to take the checkered flag first.
“I’m glad my name was on the race, otherwise it could have got a little dirty out there at the end,” Hamlin humorously remarked. “So fun to have a car that drove this good. I’ve got to thank everyone with the whole Nelson team for giving me such a great car. David Triplett did an amazing job working on this car and getting it where it was a race winner.”
The event was separated into segments, in which teams could only take tires at the lap 75 break. Considering they had more than half of the race to run on the same set, Hamlin and fellow competitors, including NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series teammate Kyle Busch, had to take things easy in the middle stages.
“Once we got to about a five car length lead I was just trying to back off and save the tires, but it looked like Kyle would back off just as much as I would,” Hamlin commented. “It was a big cat and mouse to try and save tires, and obviously we had the best tires at the end.”
Busch fell back early on in the final 50 lap dash, but maneuvered his way back to the rear of Hamlin and a second finishing position. In the end it was a one-two-three finish for the Nelson Autosport team, with most recent DHSTS winner Timothy Peters rounding out the podium.
Falk looked to have a realistic shot and wrestled the lead from Hamlin and Busch with less than 50 laps remaining. Unfortunately, he would fade to fourth after the eventual winner cleared him.
“We just ran the right front off,” Falk, who was satisfied with his conservative handling in the middle stages as well, admitted. “It’s something we’ve been working on and I thought I was really close. I got the lead there and thought for sure I’d get clean air and it would be game over, but the right front just kept getting hurt.”
Despite coming up short, it was a personal victory for the 30-year-old driver.
“I’m not a full time Late Model guy anymore,” Falk said. “My brother comes and helps me and my wife brings dinner and we did all we could. It feels good.”
Although there was a good bit of torn up equipment, Hamlin was grateful for the effort from all of the weekend warriors and the exposure an event like this gives to short track racing. In addition, he hinted in victory lane to the fans that they will see him again in Hampton, Virginia for next year’s event.
“I can’t thank all the competitors enough for preparing their race cars,” Hamlin noted. “I know they’ve got shows that they probably have to run this week, but can’t say enough for all the teams and all the sacrifices that the wives and girlfriends and husbands make for these guys to come out here and make this happen.”
-By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com National Correspondent – Twitter: @aaron_creed
-Photo credit: Speed51.com
Pos Str # Driver Laps
1 2 11 Denny Hamlin 200
2 3 51 Kyle Busch 200
3 4 12P Timothy Peters 200
4 6 02 CE Falk 200
5 7 26S Peyton Sellers 200
6 12 2S Myatt Snider 200
7 30 91 Justin S. Carroll200
8 18 6 Ruben Garcia Jr. 200
9 9 77 Connor Hall 200
10 8 12S Nick Smith 199
11 25 22 Grayson Cullather 199
12 5 18 Ty Gibbs 199
13 16 03 Brenden Queen 199
14 11 01 Philip Morris 199
15 23 92 Casey Wyatt 197
16 29 24G Colin Garrett 197
17 27 57J Eddie Johnson 196
18 19 24D Mason Diaz 196
19 24 55 Mark Wertz 190
20 32 00 Christopher Johnson 183
21 26 4 Chase Cabre 154
22 10 57C Justin T. Carroll153
23 17 88 Doug Barnes 153
24 13 8 Tyler Hughes 151
25 1 26E Danny Edwards 151
26 20 98 Nicholas Sanchez 151
27 14 83 Matt Bowling 138
28 33 94 Cody Carlton 50
29 15 2V Ryan Vargas 35
30 21 16M Brett Moffitt 35
31 31 16J Bubba Johnston 35
32 28 90 Terry Carroll 29
33 22 41 Woody Howard28
