Teammates follow familiar Cup scripts

Kyle Busch didn't shed a tear for Denny Hamlin, but he appeared genuinely empathetic toward his teammate.

Busch, if only awkwardly, searched for the right words to express Hamlin's plight -- another great performance at Richmond International Raceway washed away by insufferable bad luck.

"He wasn't quite a winner at the end of the race," Busch said. "Like I said last year, I felt for him."

Last year, Hamlin dominated the spring race at RIR. He blew a tire to lose his grip on the trophy.

This time, Hamlin bested all drivers with 148 laps led. Couple that with his 381 laps led in 2008, and the Manchester High School graduate ran up more than 60 percent of 810 laps the past two spring events on the unforgiving, three-quarter-mile short track.

On a cool Saturday night, Hamlin kept to his postrace script after a disheartening finish to a crash-filled Crown Royal Presents the Russ Friedman 400. He bolted from the complex without a whisper or shout.

Besides, what could he offer save the obligatory "it wasn't meant to be"? How he could face those certain to question a flawed tactic or criticize his pit crew for dropping the ball when for the second year in a row victory seemed inevitable?

Hamlin's bewildered crew chief Mike Ford handled the postrace inquiry while Busch took yet another triumphant bow after his 28th NASCAR victory since the start of the 2008 campaign -- including three Sprint Cup wins this season.

There were no consolations for Ford. No lessons learned in defeat.

"We've been in contention to win this race every time we've been [at RIR]," Ford said. "You don't take anything out of it other than frustration."

Ford quickly dispensed of any pretense that this monkey will soon fall off the team's back.

"As a competitor you can't let it go," Ford said. "You try to dig in and work a little harder next week. You can say you put it behind, but you never put it behind."

Hamlin, though, has struggled to win everywhere since taking the checkered flag more than a year ago at Martinsville. He shares a shop with Busch, but their fates have been polar opposites.

Busch wins everywhere in every series -- Cup, Nationwide and Camping World trucks. He doesn't know exactly why, but his team somehow figures it out as they did Saturday night.

"You've got to give feedback, and I just keep telling the guys what's wrong with it," Busch said. "I kept telling [crew chief] Steve [Addington], 'Man, it doesn't feel bad, it's not perfect, but we just can't get this much more out of it.'

"Steve made the right call there on when to pit and when to take four tires versus two tires or no tires or whatever, and it really paid off for us there at the end."

In the end, Hamlin and Ford were certain they had made the right call when they opted to adjust the chassis and change tires on Lap 274. Instead, it was the beginning of the end of another sensational run at RIR.