FORT WORTH, Texas — Three weeks after winning an other rain- postponed race, and since having surgery to repair the torn ACL in his left knee, Denny Hamlin gingerly climbed out of his car in Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday.
“I’m still not 100 percent by any means right now,” Hamlin said. “I feel like I’m 60 at best.” That was good enough to win at Texas.
Hamlin led the final 12 laps, the only time he was up front after starting the 334-lap race at 29th. The final shootout came after a spectacular nine-car wreck took out pole-sitter Tony Stewart and dominating Jeff Gordon, and Hamlin held off points leader Jimmie Johnson at the end for his 10th career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.
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. Then things spun out of control along the frontstretch, though Johnson escaped that wreck unscathed.
“Definitely my fault,” Stewart said.
When Gordon got out of his mangled No. 24 Chevrolet, he walked directly to Stewart, who was only halfway out of the car, still sitting on the door frame. Stewart put his hand on Gordon’s shoulder, and they then walked away toward the pits talking.
• Kyle Busch won the Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway, joining Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt Sr. as the only drivers to win five consecutive races in NASCAR’s second-tier series at the same track.
