Denny Hamlin wins IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol

Denny Hamlin has taken his third victory of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season by winning a typically bruising IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver took the lead from Carl Edwards with 38 laps remaining before going on to lead home Jimmie Johnson by 1.1s. Johnson had worked his way through the field during the race after being one of the worst effected by Friday’s qualifying washout.

Hamlin meanwhile faced plenty of adversity of his own during the night including an early hit with Landon Cassill in pitlane, a later scrape with the track’s infamous walls and continual engine overheating issues under caution.

Johnson’s Hendrick team-mate Jeff Gordon came home third, with Brian Vickers and Marcos Ambrose filling fourth and fifth respectively. Vickers ran second to Edwards with 50 laps remaining but effectively lost his chance of victory by dropping three places with a half-lose at Turn 2 while trying to take the lead.

Ambrose meanwhile struggled for speed in the opening stint of the race but ran competitively thereafter to record his third top five finish in as many starts.

Edwards ended the race in 22nd position after requiring a late fuel stop. The Roush Fenway team had tried to stretch the #99 Ford’s fuel and tyres for 175 laps to the flag but ran four laps short.

Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr (12th), Greg Biffle (19th) and Matt Kenseth (25th) all clinched positions in the Chase courtesy of their results. Earnhardt’s finishing position came after the Hendrick driver lost considerable track position midrace after being penalised for pitting on a closed pit road.

The most controversial moment of the race occurred on Lap 335 when Kenseth and Tony Stewart clashed while battling for the lead off of Turn 4. Once out of the car, Stewart threw his helmet at the Roush Ford before heading to the medical centre.

Another to end the night with a bent car was Danica Patrick, who was spun into the inside wall by Regan Smith while running on the lead lap with just 66 laps remaining.

Earlier incidents had also accounted for the chances of Ryan Newman (who clashed with Juan Pablo Montoya), Jeff Burton (who struck the spinning Newman) and Brad Keselowski (who took damage in a nose-to-tail incident with Vickers and Kurt Busch before eventually being tagged by Bobby Labonte). The incidents contributed to a total of 13 caution periods across the 500 laps.

Revisions to the banking progression at Bristol ahead of the weekend proved to have a significant impact on the style of racing, with ‘slide job’ passes proving the order of the day on the now single-lane racing groove.

Biffle now heads to next weekend’s Race 25 of the championship in Atlanta with a reduced 11 point lead over Johnson.

See below for the full race result

See below for the updated points standings

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