Winn-Dixie 250 - Hamlin Winner

by Bruce Simmons:

Denny Hamlin had the race in hand in the closing laps and on a green-white-checkered restart, he had a superbly good restart, pulled far enough ahead, and defended well enough to stave off any contenders looking to take the checkered flag from him in the Nationwide Winn-Dixie 250.

Kyle Busch came in 2nd, Dale Earnhardt Jr 3rd, Clint Bowyer 4th and Brad Keslowski 5th.

There was an oddness to the restart as Carl Edwards drove next to Bowyer for the yellow flag laps because he believed he was in front of him and should have been there for the restart.  In a humble post-race interview, he noted how he will be awaiting NASCAR's apology on the mess up.

On the note about Kerry Earnhardt needing to put up or shut up that I wrote about earlier:  I guess neither.  He put up enough to come in 17th after starting 10th, so kudos to that finish.  It's hard to be compared in a race full of cup drivers.  To be fair, if my count is right, Kerry Earnhardt was the 8th highest finishing Nationwide driver amongst the Cup regulars in the the field.  So we give him an eighth!!  (Ya like my new math?)  The highest finishing non Cup-regular was Brad Keselowski, in fifth.

For other details on the race, check out nascar.com-hamlin.wins,
For Winn-Dixie 250 Results,
Nationwide Point Standings:  Check out NASCAR's Standings