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By Saajan Jogia
Sports Contributing Writer
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NASCAR's Denny Hamlin has drawn a surprising comparison between his unexpected Cup Series race win at Darlington and the Houston Cougars' win over the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team in the final four.
In the last eight minutes of the basketball game, Duke led by 14 points over Houston, but the latter capitalized on some errors made by the Blue Devils, resulting in a victory. Houston will now compete with the Florida Gators in the national championship on Monday.
Hamlin's Cup race victory on Sunday was similar to Houston's, capitalizing on Kyle Larson's spin that caused an overtime race restart. Bubba Wallace made contact with Larson at the end of the race, causing him to spin and hit the inside wall, bringing out the caution flags.
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Race leader Ryan Blaney lost the top spot soon after due to a delay by his pit crew, which caused Hamlin to grab the lead and win the race. Speaking to the media after the Cup race, the 23XI co-owner said:
"This one certainly is one that I didn't deserve really as a driver. It feels good to get a win that you didn't have the best car, you didn't have race-winning speed, you just did your job just good enough to execute and keep the team in the game, right?
"Very similar to Houston yesterday, Duke dominated the game, but Houston just kept hanging around just enough and capitalized when the others couldn't close. That's what happened tonight."
Hamlin's Darlington victory, which marks his 56th win, comes straight after his triumph at Martinsville the previous weekend. When asked if he could make it 60 wins, he said:
"I mean, truthfully it's really 61, you know? I don't know. I want to get it as soon as possible 'cause you never know when you don't race anymore. I think these wins early in the season certainly are beneficial to getting some pressure off for Playoff points. Certainly makes me feel good to keep piling on those wins."
Speaking immediately after the Goodyear 400, Hamlin credited his pit crew and Larson's crash for the Darlington win. He told FOX NASCAR's Regan Smith:
"There's two people I really love right now, my pit crew and Kyle Larson. Had a little assist there, so thank you. Man, the pit crew just did an amazing job. They won it last week, they won it this week. It's all about them. Thanks SportClips, they have such a big deal here in Darlington, South Carolina."
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