NASCAR Barometer: Hamlin Wins His First Road Course Race

Denny Hamlin overcame back spasms and a wild final half of last weekend's Cheez-It 355 at the Glen to take home another trophy in 2016. The victory was his first road course win and came from a strong weekend of practice. Hamlin overcame the plethora of pit penalties that befell his competition early in the race, two red-flag periods, and late heavy pressure from Martin Truex Jr. to take the victory. However, of all of those strengths, it was restarts where the No. 11 truly excelled in the final moments of last weekend's race. The car had track position, but leaping ahead multiple car-lengths on each of the final restarts was what separated him from the pack.

Just four races remain before NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup gets underway at Chicagoland Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has fallen from the Chase standings and is also expected to be out through Bristol at the least, while Chris Buescher is fighting hard to break into the top-30 in points. If he's successful in making that step forward it will likely come at the expense of Kyle Larson. The situation couldn't be much more intense than it is with just four races remaining to fight for a championship.

UPGRADE

Denny Hamlin – By stretching the final fuel run as well as having the fastest car at the time, it was Hamlin who took the win at Watkins Glen after narrowly losing out in Sonoma. It was a wild race, but Hamlin was fast throughout the weekend and earned the top spot on Sunday. The win was Hamlin's second of the season and puts him fourth in the Chase standings with three of his teammates also ranking inside the top five. Sunday's win also comes after three consecutive top-10 finishes, which will give him a full dose of confidence before a week off. Even better is that the next race is in Bristol where he has some success. He won at the track in 2012 and finished third after leading 54 laps there last season.

Joey Logano – Like teammate Brad Keselowski, Logano had a superior machine at Watkins Glen. He won Saturday's Xfinity series race at the track and worked hard on Sunday to prove that his win there in 2015 was no fluke after he led just one lap to take the victory. His biggest competitor in the closing laps was his teammate, but it was the No. 22 who took advantage of Keselowski's aggression to take the second-place finish. Logano has two career wins at Bristol, both of which came in the most recent four races. Penske Racing has continued to up their game as the Chase approaches, and one would expect them to come back from the week off even stronger than before.

Brad Keselowski – One of the fastest cars in Sunday's race was Keselowski. He gambled on fuel mileage but was at the front of the field entirely on merit. In fact, he was in position to make a move to take the win in the final corners but wasn't able to get close enough to pull off the feat. Instead, he left Martin Truex Jr. in a cloud of smoke as he scored a third-place finish behind Hamlin. Keselowski admitted the contact was his fault, and since the pair reconciled we shouldn't expect much retaliation to be dished out in the coming weeks. That is good news for Keselowski who has two previous Bristol wins but just two top-10 finishes in the last five races at the track.

Kyle Busch – Busch entered Sunday's race as the favorite despite not having the fastest car in any of the weekend's sessions. His efforts in the race put him in contention to win, however. On multiple restarts he was pushed wide, and those instances lost him the track position that he probably could have used to vault farther forward than his sixth-place finish showed. He has five Bristol wins from 22 starts, but recorded DNFs in two of the last three races. With just one top-10 Bristol finish in the last five races, Busch will need to leverage his recent momentum to reverse that trend. A small feud may be brewing with Keselowski. The No. 2 machine was the one he blamed on those restarts. Stay tuned.

DOWNGRADE

Jimmie Johnson – Johnson needed a mistake-free afternoon to help end the slump that has plagued the current stretch of his 2016 season, but he didn't get that on Sunday. In the first pit stop for the No. 48, he was one of the many drivers caught speeding and was forced to serve a penalty as a result. Being back in the field as a result of the drive-through infraction got him caught in a big wreck in the second half of the race, which ended his afternoon completely. So, the slump continues for Johnson. With just one career Bristol win and a 28th-place finish there earlier this season it would be tough to imagine that slump breaking in the next race.

Austin Dillon – Dillon was one of the first drivers to encounter trouble at Watkins Glen on Sunday. He was checked by racing in front of him, which left Jeff Gordon with nowhere to go but into the rear of the No. 3 machine. Things only got worse later in the race when Greg Biffle was squeezed while trying to avoid the spinning Ricky Stenhouse Jr. That squeeze pushed Biffle into Dillon, who was completely taken out of the race. Road course racing has not been Dillon's specialty, but leaving last week's race in that manner will sap any momentum the team may have been building. The young driver has just one top-10 Bristol finish, too. The team needs to hit the ground running after the week off.

Carl Edwards – Despite starting from pole, Edwards was unable to secure a top finish. A slow pit stop immediately following the first red flag led him to be caught up in a multicar crash upon the restart. Earlier in the race he was one of the many drivers caught for speeding, too. So, his earlier mistakes greatly contributed to being in poor position. In the end, that poor position ruined his race. The team now has a week off to figure out what went wrong before unloading the trucks in Bristol. Edwards has four wins at that tiny track, so a turnaround in fortune could very well be in the cards. A performance that takes the trophy in two weeks would truly be a zero to hero effort.

Kevin Harvick – Like many of the top drivers on Sunday, Harvick found himself mired in the pack toward the finish. That situation proved to be the death nail in many coffins, and Harvick's was one of them. Harvick spun while avoiding action ahead of him only to have head-on contact to force a DNF onto his 2016 record. He may be safely in the Chase, but with two race finishes of 15th or worse entering the off week, one knows the team will be anxious to regain some positive momentum at Bristol. Harvick had one win career win at that track back in 2005 but has had mixed results since. Two top-10s in the last two races there are his first at the track since 2011.

Kyle Larson – Another potentially great afternoon for Larson turned into heavy disappointment late in Sunday's race. Larson was quick throughout the weekend at Watkins Glen, and was well within the top-10 runners in the final lap of the race before crashing in the final corner. That contact with A.J. Allmendinger dropped him all the way down to 29th position. That finish was a big blow in the championship standings, as his decent lead from the 17th position shrunk to just eight points before the week off. Larson is now in serious danger of falling out of Chase contention with Chris Buescher inching closer and closer to the top-30 in points, and that would be a disaster for Larson's season.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Trevor Bayne – The biggest surprise on the road course at Watkins Glen could arguably be Bayne. His ninth-place finish on Sunday was his fifth top-10 of the season and his first since Daytona in July. He finished 25th at Sonoma earlier this season and has never been a true threat on the road courses, so to see him score a top-10 finish on Sunday was definitely an example of his team and him punching above their weight. Bayne sits 18th in the championship standings with two top-fives and five top-10s after 22 races. As Roush Fenway Racing has improved their program, we have seen Bayne take advantage, and that could mean more success to come from him in the future.