Hamlin wins Busch race at Dover

The Joe Gibbs driver overtook Martin Truex Jr for the lead with 14 laps remaining, having dominated most of the race.

After taking on four tyres and fuel on his last stop under caution, he climbed from eighth place all the way to the top of the leaderboard again, despite
suffering from a bad 'flu that forced him to take intravenous fluids before the race.

Hamlin had been fastest in both Nextel Cup practice sessions before the Busch Series race, and was clearly the driver of the day at the 'Monster mile'. Some might have thought that running the Busch race while being ill was not a risk worth taking, bearing in mind his Nextel Cup title aspirations; but the race itself proved otherwise for Hamlin.

"I need a nap," an exhausted Hamlin said after the race. "I hated to stay in [the race] and maybe risk tomorrow, but I don't think I did.

"When the car handles that well, you're able to find something down in you that maybe you can't normally find."

Hamlin started from the second row of the grid, as he will today in the Nextel Cup event. Having performed like he did on Saturday, he is expected to be a main contender in the Cup race, by which time he may well be more recovered from his illness.

Truex drove the No. 8 DEI Chevrolet to second place, and admitted he had nothing for Hamlin when he arrived on his rear bumper in the closing laps of the race. He had stayed out when the Joe Gibbs driver pitted for the last time, inheriting the lead but just for a matter of laps.

"We almost pulled one off there, but we didn't have the car to hold off the 20 (Hamlin)," said Truex, who was making just his third Busch Series start of the season. "Our car was off all day, but we did pretty well with what we had."

Matt Kenseth, Mike Bliss and Ganassi's Reed Sorenson rounded up the top five, while Carl Edwards had a good day in terms of his championship aspirations - finishing sixth ahead of Brad Kaselowski who continued his run of strong result driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr's squad.

Jason Keller, polesitter Greg Biffle and David Reutimann completed the top ten. The Toyota MWR driver was able to capitalise on reigning Busch Series champion Kevin Harvick not racing this weekend, to grab second place in the standings away from him once again.

With Hamlin being so dominant, the race was a pretty straightforward affair although it had its fair share of thrills and spills. Tony Raines was involved in an incident with Robby Gordon on lap 58 when the latter tapped the rear of Raines' car and sent him into the wall.

Unable to retaliate on the track, he decided to throw his helmet at Gordon's car while the field was circulating under caution. Raines could face penalties and fines for his antics, which came in a race that was actually sponsored by the same company that was backing his car.

With only six races left in the Busch Series calendar, Edwards has literally one hand on the champion's trophy, thanks to his healthy lead in the standings, which is up to 754 points over Reutimann.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Denny Hamlin          Chevrolet  200
 2.  Martin Truex Jr       Chevrolet  200
 3.  Matt Kenseth          Ford       200
 4.  Mike Bliss            Dodge      200
 5.  Reed Sorenson         Dodge      200
 6.  Carl Edwards          Ford       200
 7.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet  200
 8.  Jason Keller          Chevrolet  200
 9.  Greg Biffle           Ford       200
10.  David Reutimann       Toyota     200
11.  Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet  200
12.  Bobby Hamilton Jr     Ford       200
13.  Mike Wallace          Chevrolet  200
14.  Casey Atwood          Ford       200
15.  Sterling Marlin       Chevrolet  200
16.  Chase Miller          Dodge      200
17.  Stanton Barrett       Chevrolet  200
18.  Landon Cassill        Chevrolet  200
19.  Kelly Bires           Ford       200
20.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford       200
21.  AJ Allmendinger       Dodge      199
22.  Steve Wallace         Dodge      198
23.  Dave Blaney           Toyota     198
24.  Tim McCreadie         Chevrolet  196
25.  Donnie Neuenberger    Ford       196
26.  Eric McClure          Chevrolet  196
27.  Robert Richardson II  Chevrolet  194
28.  Richard Johns         Ford       183
29.  Scott Wimmer          Chevrolet  168
30.  Jason Leffler         Toyota     166
31.  Robby Gordon          Ford       165
32.  David Ragan           Ford       157
33.  Carl Long             Dodge      127
34.  Kyle Krisiloff        Ford       125
35.  Tony Raines           Chevrolet  57
36.  Danny Efland          Chevrolet  48
37.  Marc Mitchell         Dodge      47
38.  Morgan Shepherd       Dodge      38
39.  Mike Harmon           Chevrolet  31
40.  Jamie McMurray        Ford       21
41.  Stephen Leicht        Ford       18
42.  Brad Coleman          Chevrolet  10
43.  Brent Sherman         Chevrolet  10