Can Denny Hamlin go 3 for 3 at Richmond?
A night after winning his Short Track Showdown charity race -- after starting shotgun on the field -- Hamlin dominated an odd Nationwide race, leading 199 of the race's 250 laps and held off Paul Menard in a green-white-checker finish.
The first 243 laps of the race had only one caution, so combined with Hamlin's dominance, there were only seven cars on the lead lap. And that number started to dwindle as teams were cutting it close on fuel mileage, with only Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse and Aric Almirola willing to risk making it to the finish on fuel.
Stenhouse ran out of gas and stopped in turn two with seven laps to go to cause the second caution, and Almirola ran out of fuel as the caution flag flew. Hamlin, however, had conserved enough fuel to make it to pit road.
That meant that Hamlin only had to deal with Menard -- who had pitted before the caution came out -- as a gaggle of lapped cars separated the two from the cars that had taken the wavearound.
Oh, and no, Danica Patrick (above) didn't finish third. She's not on this continent, even. She and the rest of the Izod IndyCar Series race in Sao Paulo on Sunday.
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