Denny Hamlin finally found his way to Victory Lane on a road course as he won the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen Sunday afternoon (8/7) at Watkins Glen International.

The 355 kilometer (220.5 miles) race can be a wild card on the schedule as the Sprint Cup series gets so much closer to NASCAR‘s playoffs. This year the wild card did not come in the form of an unlikely winner making The Chase, it came in the form of issues on track and on pit road for the drivers and teams.

The race saw a total of eight caution periods with two of those were for wrecks bade enough that the red flag had to also be issued to give track workers the chance to clean up the mess. There were 15 cars that received damage in on track incidents that were bad enough to cause a caution flag to be issued.

During the race there were numerous penalties issued for pit road violations with many drivers being nabbed for speeding on pit road.

On the positive side, eight different drivers exchanged the lead nine times during the race at Watkins Glen. In 2015 the race winner (Joey Logano) did not take the lead until the last quarter mile of the last lap. This year’s winner would get out front a little earlier than that.

Denny Hamlin made a pass to take the lead on lap 81 of the 90 lap race. He was able to keep that lead through two re-starts over the final 10 laps of the race to capture his first ever road course win in a Sprint Cup car, his first ever win at Watkins Glen and his second win of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Joey Logano spun out Martin Truex Jr. in the last turn and Joey claimed second place a result. Bread Keslewoski, who had led a race high 28 laps, came across the finish line in third place. AJ Allmendinger grabbed a fourth place finish with Tony Stewart rounding out the top five. See the complete race results from Watkins Glen for the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen here.

Following the final road course race of the NASCAR season the only change in the top five in the point standings was Brad Keselowski moving up a spot to take over the lead with Kevin Harvick falling back a spot to second place. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

Denny’s second win of the season moves him up to the fourth spot on the Chase Grid. Chris Buescher scored the win a week ago at Pocono, but he only cut his deficit to 30th place in the standings to three points after Watkins Glen. He will need to move into the top thirty by the end of the regular season in order to be Chase eligible and have his win earn his place in NASCAR’s playoffs. See the Chase Grid here.

The Sprint Cup teams will get their final weekend off before the end of the 2016 NASCAR season this coming weekend. The final four races of the regular season will begin with the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday, August 20th.

By: Buck Stevens