Denny Hamlin wins shorten race ....

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

#11-Denny Hamlin won the rain-shortened Toyota 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway. The win is his 2nd win of the year, 3rd win at Darlington and 39th career win.
#18-Busch finished 2nd followed by #4-Harvick, #2-Keselowski, #20-Jones, #22-Logano, #10-Almirola, #48-Johnson, #21-DiBenedetto, and #19-Truex, Jr.
The race was the first Cup race held on a Wednesday night since the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 4, 1984.
The race was called with 20 laps remaining.
The caution came out with 35 laps remaining when #14-Bowyer spun.  Most of the field pitted, but #11-Hamlin and #21-DiBenedetto stayed out. The race went back to green with 29 laps to go. On the following lap, #18-Busch got into the left rear of #9-Elliott and sent him spinning into the inside wall. Elliott exited the car and flipped Busch off as the field passed by him.  Then the rain began.  The red flag came out and the race could not be restarted.Pole sitter #37-Preece lost an engine early in the race and finished 39th.
#14-Bowyer won both Stage 1 & Stage 2, but spun with 35 laps to go while running in the top 5.  He finished 22nd.
There were 17 lead changes among 13 drivers and 11 cautions for 54 yellow flag laps.
The average speed of the race was: 104.984mph.