Ailing Hamlin fights through in Busch win

Feeling weak and needing intravenous fluids before the race, Denny Hamlin nearly threw in the towel. Good thing he held on, or else he would have missed out on bringing home a trophy.

Hamlin shook off an illness and found the energy to dominate and win the caution-filled Busch Series race at Dover International Speedway in Delaware on Saturday for his third win of the season.

With the yellow flag seemingly dropping every few laps, a helmet fighting for space with the cars on the track and full-time Cup drivers nipping at his bumper, Hamlin stayed out of the care center and parked himself in Victory Lane.

Hamlin complained of a tender throat, had trouble breathing and dizzy spells. Then he got in the car for a 200-lap race. Hamlin said the illness shouldn’t affect him for today’s Nextel Cup race at Dover.

The results looked like they could have come straight out of the Cup race. Martin Truex Jr., who won the Cup race on the Monster Mile in June, was second. Matt Kenseth finished third.

Hamlin, Truex and Kenseth are part of the 12-driver field for the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

Hamlin was fastest in the final Cup practice earlier in the day.

Mike Bliss and Reed Sorenson rounded out the top five.

Series points leader Carl Edwards, another Chase driver, was sixth.

Greg Biffle turned a lap of 154.440 to win his second pole of the season, but he dropped two laps down after an unscheduled pit stop because of tire issues. He rebounded to finish ninth.

Tony Raines was knocked out of the race early when his car was hit by Robby Gordon’s. Raines, whose No. 33 Chevrolet was sponsored by the same company that sponsored the race, believed the hit was intentional.

So Raines hopped out the window, waited for Gordon to drive around again and hurled his helmet at the No. 27 Ford. The helmet missed the target and skidded across the concrete.

Raines took an ambulance ride to the infield care center (he was cleared) and will surely be fined.

“Unfortunately, they can’t keep idiots like Robby Gordon from driving race cars,” Raines said.

Gordon’s race was derailed on Lap 93 when he lost control of the car, turned sideways and spun into the wall. Gordon acknowledged he was at fault for the earlier accident.

“I just clipped him a little bit,” he said.

Pole sitter Travis Kvapil broke away from a tight pack with four laps to go and held on to win the Smith’s Las Vegas 350, while former Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve finished 21st in his Craftsman Truck Series debut.

Kvapil pulled away from Johnny Benson and Jon Wood at the end to match Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday for the series lead with his fourth victory of the year.

Skinner finished 13th to take over the season points lead from Hornaday, who placed 22nd. Skinner, with 3,070 points, has a three-point lead over Hornaday, who fell out of fourth place following a solo accident with 10 laps left.

Benson was second, followed by Wood, Terry Cook and Erik Darnell.

Villeneuve qualified seventh on Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile tri-oval, and was running 16th after 30 laps. But the Canadian star got into the rear of Brian Scott’s car on Turn 2 of Lap 46 and dropped back to 25th after pitting on Lap 48 so his crew could repair the minimal damage. Villeneuve finished a lap down and never cracked the top 20 after the accident.

Claremont’s Chris Johnson started from the pole position and led the entire race to win the ACDelco Super Late Model division 50-lap feature race at Irwindale Speedway. Rip Michels of San Fernando finished fourth to clinch the division championship.