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Z-line Gives to Two Charities with JGR One-Two Finish

by Amanda Vincent, MTR Media

Friday night's Royal Purple 200 at Darlington Raceway not only came down to a battle among teammates, but also a battle between charities. Both Joe Gibbs Racing entries -- the No. 18 of Kyle Busch and the No. 20 of Denny Hamlin donned Z-line designs as their primary sponsors. The powers that be at Z-line gave Hamlin and Busch a little extra incentive to go for the win by agreeing to donate $10,000 to the charity of choice for whichever of the two drivers was in victory lane at the end of the night.

That winner ended up being Denny Hamlin, who collected his third win from the pole at Darlington. The victory was the first career Nationwide win for his crew chief Kevin Kidd.

"I can't think of a better place to do it," Kidd said. "I love this place."

It was also a special night for Mary Lou Hamlin, as she got to celebrate with her son in victory lane just a couple of days shy of Mother's Day.

"She's my number one fan," Hamlin said after the race.

Busch wasn't far behind his teammate in the closing laps, finishing second. The two JGR drivers both stayed out when the caution flag flew with about 30 laps ago, sealing their fateas most of their competitiors opted to come down pit road.

Hamlin was told to stay out under that caution. Busch, on the other hand, was told by crew chief Jason Ratcliff to pit for tires. Busch didn't follow orders, though, telling his team that he freaked out when he saw Hamlin stay out and he feared losing track position. Once he saw most of the rest of his competitors pit, Busch feared that he had blown his chance for the win.

Busch didn't win, but the move to stay out didn't go as badly as he thought, as he did manage a runner-up finish to his teammate.

As for the charity competition -- Z-line Designs decided to go ahead and make donations to both drivers' charities, Hamlin's charity of choice being Operation Helmet and Busch's being Racing for Kids.

Busch did have to fight off Jamie McMurray, though, for his second-place finish, at least for the first couple of laps after the final restart with five laps to go. Busch did pull away in the last couple of laps, and McMurray had to settle for a third-place finish.

McMurray was the only top-five finisher who wasn't driving for either Joe Gibbs Racing or Braun Racing. Braun claimed both the fourth and fifth-place finishing spots with Kasey Kahne behind the wheel of the No. 38, the car he piloted back when he raced full-time in the Nationwide Series before moving to Sprint Cup, finishing fourth and teammate Jason Leffler, who normally drives the No. 38, finishing fifth in the team's No. 10 car.

Friday night was a good night for the Braun organization. The team ended up with three cars in the top-10 when the checkers fell. Brian Vickers, also driving for Braun Racing, finished ninth.