New surface. Last ride. Thrilling finishes to live up to. And a sell out crowd for the second year in a row. That’s and all around fun combo. And it came at New York’s lone Sprint Cup track: Watkins Glen.

Carl Edwards won his second road course poll of 2016, and Kyle Larson qualified on Edwards’ outside. Edwards would lead the race’s first several laps, but would fade, and several others would take turns up front.

Due to various fuel strategies and whatnot, a host of different drivers found themselves up front. Kyle Busch, Danica Patrick, Brad Keslowski, and others, all took turns in the lead. The ironic thing was, due to the various strategies, you were never sure where one driver would wind up at any given time. And that could prove problematic.

On lap 53, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose coming off the carousel turn, which is just before the final corners, and Ricky spun out. That part of the track is very narrow, and multiple other cars were caught in the wreck, including Greg Biffle, Austin Dillon, and Jimmie Johnson. The red flag was displayed for clean up, and after this the race resumed.

Now drivers were begging to think about stretching their fuel. Track position is hard to come by, so by pitting earlier driver would be farther up in the field on restarts. Using this strategy, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keslowski both found their way to the front. However, to make it to the finish they would have to go about 40 laps on 1 tank of fuel. The fuel window is 30 to 35 laps.

Brad and Denny managed to maintain there position for a while, but as the race wound down, they had Kyle Busch all over their back bumpers. Anyone who knows Kyle knows that he is one of nascar’s finest road course racers. So seeing him behind you with a full tank of fuel and a fast car is a bad sign.

On a restart with ten laps to go, Kyle restarted outside of Brad on the front row. Both Brad and Kyle drove their cars hard into turn 1, and both over shot the corner, and Denny Hamlin slid past them for the lead. As this happened, Ryan Newman got loose and spun back in the pack, and another caution flew.

On the following restart Hamlin led the field to green, and once again Kyle Busch drove deep into the corner, and once again he over shot it, and he took Keslowski up the track with him.

As the field went through the carousel turn, Paul Menard clipped the grass and sent dust all over the track, and in blinded the drivers behind him. Chaos ensued, and Kevin Harvick, David Ragan, Chris Buescher, and others all were wrecked. The red flag flew again.

On the next restart, Martin Truex Jr., who had spent most of the race out of the picture, jumped to second and began to challenge Hamlin for the lead. Truex surged to Denny’s bumper, and as the white flag waved, it seemed that a spectacular finish was about to take place.

Truex stalked Hamlin the whole lap, and coming into the final turn, he went high, then turned down the track, trying to get a run under Denny. But Brad Keslowski ran into Truex and spun him, ending his chance at passing Hamlin.

Hamlin won his first road course race as chaos ensued behind him. Not only was Truex dumped in the final corner, but AJ Allmendinger clipped Kyle Larson and sent him spinning into the inside wall. This sent Larson from 5th to 29th. Larson is now just barely in the Chase, and Trevor Bayne, who claimed his first top-ten at a road course, is now a mere 8 points behind Larson. Both Larson and Truex were angered at Keslowski and Allmendinger, and Truex purposely hit Brad’s no. 2 on the cool down lap.

But that didn’t dampen Hamlin’s spirits. He produced a massive burnout, and blew both rear tires. This was Hamlin’s first road course win, and his second win of the year. He is the second driver in a row to win both the Daytona 500 and the Watkins Glen race in the same year. Also, this win is redemption after losing the Sonoma race earlier this year on the last lap.