NASCAR Cup Series: Denny Hamlin wins 2019 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race

Denny Hamlin passed Matt DiBenedetto to win the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, securing his fourth victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin entered the 24th race on the 36-race 2019 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race, at Bristol Motor Speedway as the hottest driver in the field with five consecutive top five finishes and four consecutive top three finishes, including a victory in the race at Pocono Raceway.

He solidified that position by winning this race in thrilling fashion, tying teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. atop the wins list this season with his fourth victory of the year.

Hamlin started this 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol Motor Speedway oval in Bristol, Tennessee from the pole position in his #11 Toyota, but he had to overcome several bouts of adversity throughout it. He took damage early, overcame an untimely caution flag period that mired him two laps down, and overcame two loose wheels.

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Leavine Family Racing’s Matt DiBenedetto appeared to be on his way to securing the first victory of his Cup Series career and advancing to the playoffs for the first time in his career after passing Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones in the race’s third and final stage, as Jones ended up hitting the wall after losing the lead, but Hamlin ran him down won it.

After DiBenedetto’s #95 Toyota took slight damage to the front when he attempted to put Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman one lap down, Hamlin passed him for the lead with 11 laps remaining, and he went on to win the race by 0.502 seconds.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski was the highest finishing Ford driver of this race. He finished in third place in his #2 Ford ahead of Busch in fourth in his #18 Toyota. Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson were the highest finishing Chevrolet drovers of this race. They finished in fifth and sixth in their #9 Chevrolet and #42 Chevrolet, respectively.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez, who nearly took each other out when Bowyer spun, ended up finishing in seventh and eighth place in their #14 Ford and #41 Ford, respectively.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who was also involved in a pretty sizable wreck when he had a tire go down, rounded out the top 10 by finishing in ninth and 10th place in their #1 Chevrolet and #12 Ford, respectively.

This race featured a total of 23 lead changes among 10 drivers. Aside of Hamlin, who led 79 laps, nine drivers led at least one lap of the race. These nine drivers were DiBenedetto, Keselowski, Kyle and Kurt Busch, Elliott, Larson, Truex, Jones and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick. Harvick appeared to be a contender for the victory as well before a transmission issue knocked him out of the race.

DiBenedetto led more laps than anybody else in the field for the second time this season, as he also did so in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, another race that Hamlin won. He led 93 laps in tonight’s race.

This race also featured eight caution flag periods, including six that took place as a result of on-track incidents and the usual two that took place as a result of the endings of stages one and two. Of the 38 drivers who started the race, 31 finished it and seven finished on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Race Results
1st – Denny Hamlin
2nd – Matt DiBenedetto
3rd – Brad Keselowski
4th – Kyle Busch
5th – Chase Elliott
6th – Kyle Larson
7th – Clint Bowyer
8th – Daniel Suarez
9th – Kurt Busch
10th – Ryan Blaney
11th – Ryan Newman
12th – Daniel Hemric
13th – Martin Truex Jr.
14th – Darrell Wallace Jr.
15th – Alex Bowman
16th – Joey Logano
17th – Chris Buescher
18th – Ryan Preece
19th – Jimmie Johnson
20th – Ty Dillon
21st – William Byron
22nd – Erik Jones
23rd – Paul Menard
24th – Corey LaJoie
25th – Landon Cassill
26th – Ross Chastain
27th – Matt Tifft
28th – J.J. Yeley
29th – Aric Almirola
30th – Quin Houff
31st – Kyle Weatherman
32nd – B.J. McLeod
33rd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
34th – Austin Dillon
35th – Josh Bilicki
36th – David Ragan
37th – Michael McDowell
38th – Reed Sorenson
39th – Kevin Harvick

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There is no NASCAR Cup Series race on next weekend’s schedule. The series is scheduled to get back into action on Sunday, September 1 with the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This race, the penultimate race of the regular season, is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET.

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