Denny Hamlin registered his sixth (6) victory of the season Saturday, bypassing teammate Martin Truex Jr. and prevailing in the opening race of a NASCAR Cup Series weekend doubleheader at Dover International Speedway as Joe Gibbs Racing notched a 1-2-3 finish.
Hamlin’s JGR No. 11 Toyota swept both stages and led a race-high 115 of the 311 laps, including the final nine laps after his clinching pass of Truex late in the Drydene 311. His first victory at the 1-mile Delaware track was his 43rd in Cup Series competition.
Truex led 88 laps but placed second in the No. 19 Toyota, snapping a streak of five consecutive third-place finishes. Kyle Busch secured third place with Kevin Harvick fourth and pole-starter Chase Elliott completing the top five.
The Cup Series’ next race, also called the Drydene 311, is scheduled Sunday (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) right back at Dover.
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
Nobody was riding along with The Delivernator, aka Denny Hamlin, for the Dover 1 race Saturday. So this award will be stowed back away in the illustrious closet until the checkered flag flies on Sunday.
THE MOVERS AND THE SHAKERS
As the aforementioned paragraph stated, nobody from our fantasy league was riding shotgun with the race winner, Denny Hamlin. However, nearly half of the fantasy was stuffed into the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Camry of MTJ. The laundry list for the people riding with Truex, who racked up the most points for this race, includes Dan The Numbers Cruncher, Edie The Las Vegas Super Star, Snoopy Dawn, Carlton The Doorman, and Leon Your Most Humble Sheriff. All five players were riding high and added 50 big points to their 3rd segment tallies!
Jeremy The Coach, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head, as well as Bernie the Bay Area Bandit recorded the second best score for Dover 1. The Coach and La Bandita each were securely stowed away with Blazingly Bad Brad Keselowski, while The Cheddar Head had quietly snuck into the cockpit of Kevin Harvick’s Freaky Fast Ford. All three players rocked it today parking 42 points in the 3rd segment satchel!
Another player having a really got Saturday afternoon was Carole, aka Rudy! Ol Rudy stuffed 41 much needed points into her 3rd segment bucket of points courtesy of the often whiney Rowdy, aka Kyle Busch.
Jim, aka Chiefy made it to the part of the post this week. Chiefy stuffed 23 points into his bucket from YRB’s, Young Ryan Blaney, 14th place finish.
Rounding out the top five scorers this week is Linda The Cookie Mom. The Cookie Mom was able to add 21 points to her 3rd segment totals. (More on this later in the post!)
Seven of the eleven players moved to different positions once the checkered flag waved Saturday. The four players who remained in their previous position are Leon Your Most Humble Sheriff, (horn tooting time…..still sits at the top of the leaderboard!) Jeremy the Coach holds down 7th place and Snoopy Dawn and Carlton The Doorman are still hunkered down in their pervious resting spot. (More on this later in the post!)
Now for the nitty-gritty. The player who travelled further on the scoring pylon than any other player was Jim, aka Chiefy. Even though Chiefy scored a mediocre 23 points this week, it was not enough to even keep him in the same neighborhood! That loud sound of rushing air that we all heard was Chiefy plummeting five (5) places to now reside in 9th place.
Still another player defied gravity on Saturday. Linda The Cookie Mom was not far behind Chiefy as she too fell from grace. When she finally leveled off with some form of equilibrium she had plunged three (3) spots to land in 5th place.
Meanwhile, Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head, Carole, aka Rudy, as well as Edie The Las Vegas Super Star all moved two positions Saturday. All three ladies climbed up the scoring pylon to reside in 3rd, 4th, and 6th, respectively.
Lastly, Bernie The Bay Area Bandit and Dan The Numbers Dude stepped up their game and position one spot to sit in 2nd and 8th places, respectively.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
As I mentioned previously in the post Linda The Cookie Mom added 21 points to her segment totals on Saturday. On most race weekends that would be a score that gets glossed over, or completely ignored because it is a mediocre score. Well this week that mediocre score was enough points, or a lack thereof, to garner The Cookie Mom The Crappiest Pick of the Week! Salute!
Another double edged compliment about to be issued! Snoopy and The Doorman were among the group of players that took home the most points of the Saturday race, 50 big ones. Unfortunately, that score was not nearly enough for either of them to be evicted from The Outhouse Saturday. But there is some hope out there on the horizon for Sunday!
Check out the results of the Drydene 311 at Dover.
Buckle up tomorrow! Between the Indy 500 and the Dover doubleheader there is will be great “anticipation” about who hoists the hardware at both venues!
The Indy 500 pre-race begins about the time that the NXS race comes on. I have set up my recorder to record the NXS Race and The Cup race. When Indy is over I will switch and begin watching the taped Cup race. So I may be a little later posting the results, unless I can fast forward through the commercials and catch up!
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOUR BELTS TIGHT AND LET’S GO RACIN’!