For the first time ever in the Nascar Busch series, and for the first time since 1977 in all of Nascar, a relief driver has finished first in a Nascar race.
Denny Hamlin, who wasn't even born in 1977, drove the Rockwell Automation #20 car to victory in the ATT250 at the Milwaukee Mile tonight.
But Hamlin didn't win the race.
Hamlin, who flew in from Sonoma, Cal., for the race, didn't get to the race track in time to start the race. Driver Aric Almirola, who drove the Rockwell Automation car all week in qualifying, and actually had the pole position for the car at the start of the race, had to start the race in Hamlin's place.
But after leading the first 45 laps or so, Almirola slipped to third, and somebody made a decision to pull him out of the car.
It wasn't clear who made the decision, but it was clear that the decision was made by the sponsor. "This is Rockwell Automation's world headquarters," the crew chief, Dave Rogers, said. "We have a lot of Rockwell fans in attendance tonight and they wanted to see Denny win."
"You gotta do what you gotta do. It is a bittersweet victory," the Rockwell Automation car's crew chief said after Hamlin did burnouts, and carried the Virginia Tech flag into Victory Lane...a Victory Lane that conspicuously lacked Aric Almirola.
Almirola, however, will get the credit for the win, and the points in the standings, too. Not as good as driving for the win, but better than the slap in the head getting pulled from a car in which you were driving terrifically well.
And Rockwell Automation gets a win in front of the hometown crowd.
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