Hamlin is lights-out in recording third career NASCAR Cup victory at Kansas Speedway

Denny Hamlin made it two in a row at Kansas Speedway.

And he chased away his nighttime demons at the track in winning the NASCAR Cup Super Start Battery 400 on a sizzling Thursday night, outdueling Brad Keselowski in a race that was contested without fans.

Hamlin, who won last October’s daytime race at Kansas Speedway, had struggled mightily in the spring races since lights were installed at the track in 2014. But he won for the third time in his career here, tying him with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart for the most wins at Kansas Speedway

And more importantly, Hamlin, in the No 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, won for a series-leading fifth time this season and moved into fourth place in the overall standings, 129 points behind Kevin Harvick, a four-time winner this season.

Hamlin grabbed the lead from Harvick with 12 laps to go after the two veterans overhauled Hendrick Motorsports youngsters William Byron and Alex Bowman. Then, he had to fight off Team Penske’s Keselowski, last year’s spring race winner, to the checkered flag.

Considering Harvick and Hamlin have combined for nine of 19 wins in the Cup season this year, Hamlin was asked if outrunning Harvick on Thursday help him mentally going into the playoffs and the championship race at the end of the year at Phoenix.

“Not really,” Hamlin said, “because every track is so different, especially with no practice. This season is going to come down to a crapshoot. You don’t feel like you’re in a one-up position by beating him.

“I thought we were in trouble (Thursday) Our car didn’t have the all-out speed that a couple cars did. But to outduel him at the end is gratifying, but it only lasts this week. It doesn’t give me any false confidence going forward.”

Martin Truex Jr., a two-time winner at Kansas was third and Harvick, a three-time winner, was fourth. The Cup drivers, competing in their fifth event, counting the All-Star Race, in 18 days, did not have the benefit of practice or qualifying because of measures taken due to the pandemic.

In fact, this race was rescheduled from May 31 due to the pandemic and was the second Thursday night race of the reshaped schedule. It was the first Cup race to be held in the heat of July at Kansas Speedway, which opened in 2001. Until this year, NASCAR had not held a Cup race on a Thursday in 35 years, or since July 4, 1985 at Daytona.

Going into Thursday’s race, Hamlin’s average finish for six nighttime races at Kansas was a middling is 23.3, including two DNFs and a best finish of fifth in 2018. But his average finish for the last six daytime fall races is a tidy 7.3, including a second place in 2015 and the victory in 2019.

Hamlin regained that form on Thursday, which was significant considering he finished 12th or worse in his last three races since winning at Pocono.

“I don’t know if we had the best car, but we had a top three car,” said Hamlin, who now has 42 career wins, which ranks 19th all-time. “We went and got it at the end. I saw the 4 (Harvick) loose, and that was a benefit for us to get that momentum going. This team is really hitting on all cylinders right now.

“We can win on any given week. That’s something that is really hard to come by. This team is good on short tracks, intermediate tracks and super speedways.”

Hamlin, considered the best Cup driver not to have won a title, is especially looking forward to returning to Kansas on Oct. 18 for a playoff race.

“Anytime we can go to a race track and win the first time and go back later in the season, we’re pretty optimistic,” he said. “I love our chances. Anytime we run a track two times, I spend a lot of time downloading and figuring out what I need to be better.

“Kansas has matured into one of the best mile-and-a-half tracks we have on our schedule. We can run from the wall to the bottom. It’s a really, really nice race track. It seems like the asphalt has really aged well here. It seems like our set up works for both (races). We didn’t venture far from our race winning setup this time around, and it was pretty close”

Thursday’s race had 11 cautions and was stopped briefly for 2 minutes, 45 seconds for a red flag on lap 183 following a frightening crash that saw Ryan Preece’s slam directly into the wall in turn two and slide on two wheels. Ryan Newman, who was involved in a horrific crash in the Daytona 500, was part of the collision with Preece and Christopher Bell

Six laps earlier, a flat tire on Joey Logano’s car set off a multi-car crash, also in turn two, that involved Matt DiBenedetto and Jimmie Johnson, the last two drivers above the playoff field cutoff, and Austin Dillon, the winner last week at Texas.

“The re-starts are wild because we have no horsepower,” a frustrated DiBenedetto told NBC Sports. “It takes us 45 minutes to get going.”

Racing resumes on Friday night at Kansas Speedway when the NASCAR trucks series takes the green flag at 6 with the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 200 followed by ARCA series Dawn 150. Another doubleheader will follow at 12:30 on Saturday with the trucks series e.p.t. 200 followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series Kansas Lottery 250.

The five-race weekend, sans fans, was created when Kansas Speedway, in addition to its postponed trucks and Cup weekend of May 30-31, inherited the ARCA, second trucks race and Xfinity races that were canceled due to the pandemic at Iowa Speedway and Chicagoland

This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 10:45 PM.