Denny Hamlin delivers 200th career Top-5 finish

Denny Hamlin’s fourth-place finish Sunday in AdventHealth 400 earned the Joe Gibbs Racing driver his 200th-career Top-5 finish.

Hamlin’s Top-5 finish was his second of 2022 and his first since his win at Richmond in April.

“I just never could get an opportunity to get up there and show the speed, but once I was there, I just couldn’t get past the aero side of it,” Hamlin said. “We were all a freight train at the top, and that’s all I had. Our Sport Clips Camry was fast.

“We had to go to the back three times and that is not ideal, but I just want to think about the positives today.”

Hamlin is the 16th driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to score at least 200 Top-5 finishes. Only Kevin Harvick (238) and Kyle Busch (232) lead Hamlin among active drivers.

HISTORY
Richard Petty leads the all-time Top-5 list with 555. Bobby Allison is second (336), Jeff Gordon is third (325), David Pearson is fourth (301) and Dale Earnhardt is fifth (281).

Three-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Lee Petty was the first driver to eclipse 200 Top-5 finishes. He earned the mark with his victory at Columbia Speedway in Cayce, South Carolina in August of 1959.

SOURCES
Racing-Reference.info