Hamlin and Toyota win at Kansas; Bowyer second

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Denny Hamlin held off Nationwide Series points-leader Clint Bowyer to win Saturday's Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, but Bowyer extended his margin in the standings over his two closest pursuers.

Hamlin led every lap of a 36-lap green-flag run to finish the race and crossed the finish line 1.407 seconds ahead of Bowyer. Hamlin claimed his fourth Nationwide victory of the season and the ninth of his career, as Toyota locked up the manufacturer championship in its second year in the series.

Kansas Lottery 300

Official Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
2.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
3.	David Ragan	Ford
4.	Carl Edwards	Ford
5.	Matt Kenseth	Ford
6.	Brad Keselowski	Chevrolet
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Jason Leffler	Toyota
9.	Joey Logano	Toyota
10.	Kelly Bires	Ford

• Results | Videos | Photos

Hamlin's win in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 was the 18th of the season for Toyota. The performance of four teams fielding six Camrys -- Braun Racing, Germain Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing -- have combined to produce 48 top-five finishes, 85 top-10 results and 11 pole positions in the first 30 events of the 2008 season.

David Ragan finished third, followed by Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski. With five races left on the schedule, Bowyer leads second-place Edwards by 196 points and third-place Keselowski by 268.

"We made adjustments on every pit stop," said Hamlin, who took his first lead on Lap 94 and led 99 of the final 107 laps. (watch video).

"We didn't have the best car in qualifying, and we didn't have the best car early in the race, but we just kept making it better."

Hamlin had opened a lead over Kevin Harvick that exceeded 2 seconds when Harvick fell off the pace with an ignition problem on Lap 139. That handed the second position to Kenseth, who trailed Hamlin by more than 4 seconds when contact from Mike Bliss' Chevrolet sent Kyle Busch's Braun Racing Toyota into the Turn 4 wall (watch video).

"Left a lug nut loose [on the previous green-flag pit stop] and got run over by the 1 [Bliss] trying to get back to pit road," Busch said.

Harvick, who had led 88 of the first 93 laps, lost a lap in the pits during the cycle of green-flag stops while his crew changed batteries in the No. 33 Chevrolet (watch video). NASCAR called the caution for Busch's accident with Harvick still on pit road.

Edwards had an early problem with the front valance on his No. 60 Ford but fought back to finish fourth.

"The car just was not as fast all day as I thought it was going to be," Edwards said. "We got a good finish, but we didn't close any points on Clint. He did his job [Saturday] and stretched out his lead."

Note: Nationwide career victory leader Mark Martin looked to be a contender for the win until he blew a left-rear tire exiting Turn 2 on Lap 44 and slammed into the outside wall driver-side-first (watch video). Team owners Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an anxious moment when they couldn't reach Martin on the radio. As it turned out, the impact had knocked the radio out of commission. Martin later was released from the infield care center with a clean bill of health. He finished 38th.