Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. make it a 1-2 finish for Toyota in the Kansas 400

    Denny Hamlin at the finish line, just ahead of Martin Truex Jr. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    (Updated)

    By Mike Mulhern
    mikemulhern.net

    "We just hung around the top-five all day, and at the end made our charge," Hamlin said.
    "But we had to have some things happen for us.
    "When we came out of that last pit stop off pit road side by side, I knew that was going to be the battle for the win."
   Truex led 173 of the 267 laps, but Hamlin wrestled the lead away with 32 laps to go.
    "I was thinking this a no-lose situation for me, because I'm such a huge fan of Michael Waltrip's and Martin's," Hamlin said. "And really once I got the lead I got a little complacent."
    Hamlin's Joe Gibbs operation and Waltrip's operation have been working very closely together for a while now, with Toyota officials hoping Gibbs' long-running success would help the once-struggling Waltrip camp. And this spring Waltrip's three men have all been quite strong.
    So the one-two Toyota finish, Hamlin said, "was a good day for Toyota. We're starting to see these Toyotas make a run."

   In a little historical footnote, Hamlin's win marked the record 199th NASCAR victory for a car numbered 11. That breaks a tie with Richard Petty's famous number 43. Hamlin has 19 of those wins; most of the historical wins came with Junior Johnson as team owner.
   
   Truex made a dive-bomb passing attempt to the inside with two laps to go in the 267-lapper, but his car didn't stick, and Hamlin slipped away.
   "I was a little faster than Denny at the end, but he was running up against the wall where I wanted to be, so that was just a move of desperation," Truex said. "I'd like to try it again."
   And moments later track men began ripping up this 1-1/2 miles of asphalt to begin the four-month process of repaving the track for Oct. 21st NASCAR championship playoff race.
  
  

    Yes, this is an M1A1 Abrams tank, running slow laps at Kansas Speedway, moments after Martin Truex Jr. finished a close runner-up to Denny Hamlin. Looks like Scott Miller, the new competition director for Michael Waltrip's surging race team, may be bringing in the heavy artillery. (Photo: Kansas Speedway)
  

  
   Truex was runaway leader most of the day, untouchable. But when bright sun finally broke through late, Hamlin's car picked up dramatically, and Truex' suddenly seemed off.
    "It's a little frustrating, to be honest," Truex said. "But I guess if we can be this disappointed with second it shows how far we've come as a team. 
    "The team was phenomenal today….just not really sure what to think about that last set of tires. That last set of tires it was just bad, bad loose, different from what it had been all day.
     "The car had been really good all day, but we put the last set on and I was wrecking-loose for the first 20 laps.
     "Denny was able to get by me, and once he did the race was over. 
      "My car got better longer in the run, and I was able to get back to him. But I'd get three or four car lengths from him and pick up the aero-push.
     "But I know our wins are going to come."
    Truex and teammates Mark Martin and Clint Bowyer have all run well this season, in a remarkable comeback for team owner Michael Waltrip.

   
A U.S. Army combat-ready ground-pounder, tearing up asphalt at Kansas Speedway. Some serious remodeling in the works here (Photo: Kansas Speedway)
   

    Jimmie Johnson, bidding yet again to get career win number 200 for car owner Rick Hendrick, was a third-place car most of the day, and that's where he ended up. "I was just watching from third, hopeful those guys would get a little aggressive and give me an opportunity," Johnson said.
   The five-time champion hasn't won since here last fall, a win that was also the last Sprint Cup tour win for Hendrick.
   However Johnson again was close to a win, just as he was last week at Texas and the week before at Martinsville.
   "Texas, Martinsville, and not get the victory, to get the most laps and not close the deal does sting," Johnson said. "Today we ran well but we weren't a dominant car and finished where we should have.
    "Sure, I'd love to do it; but Martin and Denny at the end had more pace than we did."
 
    At least Johnson finished. Teammate Jeff Gordon had an engine going sour down the stretch, and he was blackflagged by NASCAR for not maintaining enough speed. Gordon finished 21st.
   "When you see your teammates fall out, you get worried," Johnson said. "I kept trying to tell myself everything was fine."
   At least seven other drivers had serious engine issues, including Bowyer, Martin and pole starter AJ Allmendinger, in the worst day of the year in that department.
  
    The race, with only three caution flags, a record, was quite uneventful. The only two incidents were minor ones, for Tony Stewart scraping the wall, and then Juan Pablo Montoya. Both men continued and finished.
    In fact the race opened with a long stretch of green, which coupled with last Sunday's long closing stretch of green, had drivers running a total of 430 miles over the two races without any incident.
    Those long stretches of green have been the norm this season, with only half as many yellows for incidents during the year's first eight races as last spring.
    Some might call such strung out racing boring, and there was preciously little spine-tingling action, except on those two restarts.
    And what this spring's mild-mannered racing might do for the sport's TV ratings appears clear: TV viewers so far are off by more than a million fans per race, according to network numbers. Six of the first seven races showed ratings declines over last spring, and overall the first seven averaged a 4.9 rating, down about 10 percent from last spring's 5.4 average, and down even more from 2009's 5.8 average.
    Rough TV viewership numbers appear to show that, on average, about 8.2 million people are watching each Sprint Cup race this spring, to last spring's average 9.3 million.
   Fox officials have so far been reluctant to offer many specific figures about NASCAR coverage.