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NASCAR Crash Course: Denny Hamlin salvages Toyota's disastrous start to 2022 season - CBS Sports

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Denny Hamlin's 2022 NASCAR season went from bust to boom Sunday at Richmond. One gutsy strategy call, a determined drive and suddenly, Hamlin's first top-10 finish of the year landed him in victory lane.

"Eventually, you can't roll the dice and continue to roll seven out," Hamlin said afterward. "The odds are, if you keep banging on the door, it's going to open."

Crew chief Chris Gabehart did just that, taking a risk by pitting Hamlin during a lap 250 caution for Cody Ware's wreck. Dropping to 15th, Hamlin raced up inside the top 10 on fresh rubber, allowing Gabehart to pit the car again 10 laps later during the final yellow flag of the race.

From there, the No. 11 team's strategy was set: pit twice more during a final stage that stayed green. With 36 laps remaining, that left Hamlin, albeit on fresh tires, a full lap down to leader William Byron who had no such plans to stop again.

What happened next was breathtaking as Hamlin kept digging. He unlapped himself, then started chopping off nearly a full second per lap on his competitors with Kevin Harvick's No. 4 right behind. Suddenly, both came within range of Kyle Larson, teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Byron, driving by all three as if they were stopped.

"The 4 and the 11 were on a totally different planet," said Byron. "That's just part of it. There wasn't anything I could do about them."

Hamlin then held off Harvick, two 40-somethings breaking the streak of 12 straight races won by drivers under 30. Gabehart's bold move put Hamlin right back in playoff position after their awkward start left them outside the top 20 in points.

"You've got to trust your instincts," Gabehart said of his call. "If you think wrong, you will think wrong. It was just something about that moment that I know, 'OK, we're going this direction, and that's what we did."

Hamlin's victory was Toyota's first in NASCAR's Next Gen chassis as Joe Gibbs Racing placed all four of their cars inside the top 10. Truex had arguably the best car, leading 80 laps, as the organization looks to catch back up to the Ford and Chevy powerhouse teams ahead of them.

"We needed a data point," Hamlin said. "Something, a good run to kind of balance ourselves on other tracks. Obviously, I think we got it here."

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Green: Ryan Blaney -- Blaney had never led a lap in a Cup car at Richmond entering this weekend. He left with a race-high 128 laps led from the pole, a career-best seventh-place finish here and tied for the point lead with good friend Chase Elliott. I'd call that a win.

Yellow: Kevin Harvick -- Runner-up was Harvick's best result of the year, his first top-5 finish that launched him up to eighth in the standings. But second place was the first loser, indeed, for a 50-race winless drought for this Cup champion that dates back to September 2020 at Bristol.

Red: Bubba Wallace -- Toyota's Richmond triumph left 23XI Racing on the sidelines: Kurt Busch had electrical issues while Wallace ran a distant 26th. Bubba's the one in a bigger slump, without a top-10 finish since losing the season-opening Daytona 500 by inches to Austin Cindric.

Speeding Ticket: Kyle Busch -- Richmond's most confusing moment came when Busch was penalized for his crew chief adding tape on the grille. Say what? The team was supposed to put it on the brake duct instead, breaking one of those NASCAR rules confusing enough for the casual fan to understand. What's worse, officials didn't notice the infraction for multiple pit stops, allowing the team to think what they did was OK.

"I think the point of [the team complaining was] when that happened, if that was a penalty, then address it," owner Joe Gibbs said of NASCAR officials. "It wasn't till I think two stops later."

It erased the good vibes from a record-setting 9.19-second four-tire pit stop for Busch, one the team claimed was the fastest in NASCAR history. He wound up ninth.

Oops!

Top NASCAR prospect Ty Gibbs has three wins in this season's first seven Xfinity Series races. But the teenage grandson of Super Bowl-winning NFL coach Joe Gibbs is earning a reputation for playing rough.

The latest victim? His own part-time teammate. John Hunter Nemechek had the edge on Gibbs entering the final lap at Richmond until getting bumped, then body-slammed in his No. 18 as Gibbs slipped past to score the win.

It's the second time in a month this 19-year-old's aggression has caused controversy after contact wrecked Ryan Sieg at Las Vegas in March.

"I know I'll talk to him," Grandpa Joe said Sunday night. "What I always talk to Ty about is going right to the person immediately. He's been pretty good about that."

Those apologies also come free of consequences, though. In the end, Gibbs keeps the trophy while Nemechek, a full-time Camping World Truck Series driver, was robbed of a limited opportunity to prove himself.

"I was fine with getting run into," Nemechek said. "Getting my back bumper beat off, hit in the left rear, whatever, moved out of the way. Packing air, that's racing, hard racing, short track racing. But when you flat out miss a corner and pretty much drive through someone, I wouldn't call that racing."

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