NASCAR Xfinity Series at New Hampshire 2015 Results: Winner, Standings, Reaction

Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Xfinity Series' Lakes Region 200 on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It's the second time this season that the driver of the No. 20 car started on the pole and won the race, previously accomplishing the feat in the ToyotaCare 250.

Hamlin led 145 of the 200 laps, including the final 22. He was challenged by several different drivers over the final portion of the race. But his car was clearly a step above the rest for most of the afternoon, and it paid off in the end.

Let's check out the top finishers from the Lakes Region 200 and look at the current standings as the season passes the halfway mark. That's followed by a recap of the action from Loudon.

Lakes Region 200 Results

Place	Car No.	Driver
1	20	Denny Hamlin
2	33	Austin Dillon
3	22	Brad Keselowski
4	54	Kyle Busch
5	18	Daniel Suarez
6	3	Ty Dillon
7	7	Regan Smith
8	6	Darrell Wallace Jr.
9	9	Chase Elliott
10	42	Brennan Poole

Series Standings

Rank	Driver	Points
1	Chris Buescher	623
2	Chase Elliott	-31
3	Ty Dillon	-38
4	Regan Smith	-59
5	Elliott Sadler	-68
6	Darrell Wallace Jr	-76
7	Daniel Suarez	-107
8	Brendan Gaughan	-117
9	Ryan Reed	-121
10	Brian Scott	-129

Race Recap

Hamlin started on the pole, but it didn't take long for fellow Sprint Cup star Kyle Busch, who led the most laps last week in Kentucky, to assume the top spot.

Those two continued to battle throughout the early stages of the race. That is, until Hamlin spun out and collected Busch in the collateral damage. Both drivers opted to make an early pit stop, sending them to the rear of the field.

Brad Keselowski and Dylan Lupton both enjoyed stints in the lead, but it didn't take long for Hamlin and Busch to make their way back through the field. By the next pit stop, both were already back in contention at the front.

Hamlin regained the lead, and after a brief back-and-forth battle with Busch, he established himself as the clear front-runner for an extended stretch. He led 72 straight laps until things started to become more wide open during the second half of the race.

Kelly Crandall of Popular Speed highlighted some of the bad blood between Hamlin and Busch:

The action started to pick up inside the final 75 laps as Austin Dillon, Brian Scott and Darrell Wallace Jr. all made charges into the lead pack, each grabbing a brief lead. None of them was able to hold off Hamlin, however. The impressive No. 20 car moved back to the front, though he couldn't build the size of the lead quite as much as he had earlier in the race.

Then one of the contenders, Scott, literally watched his hopes go up in smoke with less than 40 laps to go. NASCAR on NBC highlighted the early end to his day:

Dillon made a great run coming out of that caution to take the lead away from Hamlin.

The story stayed the same, though. The No. 20 fought back and, after making a little contact around the turn, took the lead back with 21 laps to go.

By the time Dillon regained control after the touch, he had fallen back to fourth place. He recovered nicely, getting back up into second for the final 10 laps, but there simply wasn't time for him to reel the leader back in again.

As a result, Hamlin collected the checkered flag. NASCAR Xfinity showcased the celebration:

Post-race comments from Dillon suggest the fireworks from the latter stages of Saturday's race may carry over, as Nick DeGroot of Motorsport.com noted:

Looking ahead to Sunday's Sprint Cup race, one of the big takeaways will be the lack of an advantage gained by taking all four tires. Keselowski tried to use that strategy late in the race. It didn't pay off at all, as he couldn't make a charge.

Hamlin should also enter the race with a boatload of confidence after navigating the track so well. While a lot is obviously dependent on the car, he found a comfort zone with his lines, and it never felt like anybody else really had a chance if he avoided a second crash.

The Xfinity Series returns to action next Saturday for the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.