By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

OXFORD – Denny Hamlin didn’t have too much time to dwell on Saturday’s near miss in his Busch Series race in Illinois.

After watching the lead slip away in the final laps, Hamlin had to quickly leave that behind and refocus on Sunday’s TD Banknorth 250.

“We had a car that dominated (Saturday),” Hamlin said. “We had a bad pit strategy and ended up losing the race.”

Hamlin arrived in Maine at 4:30 a.m. and only got a few hours sleep. Driving a car provided by Scott King of Livermore Falls, Hamlin was gunning to bring his hot hand to the 250.

Hamlin has two Nextel Cup victories, and has placed in the top 10 in half a dozen other races.

He wasn’t so fortunate Sunday. Hamlin, J.J. Yeley and other big names like Ricky Craven and Dave Dion had to go through the last-chance race to reach the main event.

Hamlin got a bad draw and was running from behind all day.

Hamlin started 11th in the sixth heat, but eventually pulled off the track during a caution. He returned in time for a restart in hopes to work the kinks out. He was the only Nextel Cup driver to finish a qualifying heat.

He sat on the pole in the third consolation race, but when he tried to bump Chuck Lachance out of his way to take the lead, he spun out.

“We’ve struggled to get the car good, but I feel like we’re at least competitive,” said Hamlin. “We’re not one of the fastest cars, but we’re not one of the slower ones either.”

Getting used to the track was a challenge. Hamlin said OPS was like no other track he had raced. Still, it was an opportunity to return to his roots.

“It’s great to be at a short track,” Hamlin said. “It’s what I grew up doing for years. I just came out here without any pressure on me and coming out here to have fun.”

Kyle Busch also arrived early in the morning after a hectic week, in which he attended his brother’s wedding in Virginia Beach. He spun out in his first qualifying heat. After making some cosmetic changes, he roared from last to first in the consolation race to be the first Nextel Cup racer to qualify Sunday.

Yeley brought his struggles from Saturday night with him. He spun out and hit the wall in Illinois and was never a factor in the race. Sunday morning, he had barely taken his first practice turn in a car provided by Whorff Motorsports before he was in a fender bender.

“I got spun,” Yeley said. “A guy turned me. When I was spinning a guy tried to stop and wrecked the front suspension. They got it fixed, but it bent some stuff in the rear that they missed. The car wasn’t handling real good.”

During his first two hours of practice, Yeley drove just four laps. He got some practice in later, but found trouble again in qualifying. He banged into Chris Kennison, taking out his right front panel again. In his consolation race, Yeley was on the pole and ran first or second for much of the race. After he dropped back to third, he was bumped by Ricky Rolfe and later spun out and finished out of the running.

“It makes me feel bad for guys,” Yeley said. “They’ve worked hard on the car. Right off the bat, I tore it apart. As one of the guys everyone wants to be, one of the Nextel Cup driver, you feel like you have to go out and produce.”