After taking the checkered flag in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Royal Purple 200 at Darlington Raceway, Denny Hamlin visited Victory Lane once more a day later in the Sprint Cup Series Showtime Southern 500 at the historic track.

The back-to-back wins are the first weekend sweep for Hamlin in his NASCAR career and the Cup win ties the young driver with 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson for the most wins so far this season; both drivers have three.

What sets Hamlin apart is that he had surgery to repair an ACL tear just a few weeks ago. He won at Martinsville, went under the knife and then came back to win at Texas. Now he has proven that he is well on his way to recovery.

Plus, the win was a great Mother’s Day gift to his mother who was one of the first to congratulate him as he pulled into Victory Lane. Hamlin thanked her in his post-race interview.

The race was a rough one for many drivers including Johnson who had multiple on-track incidents before A.J. Allmendinger slammed into him and ended his day early. Tony Stewart, Sam Hornish Jr., Bobby Labonte and many others got bitten by the Track Too Tough To Tame.

Jamie McMurrary finished 2nd behind Hamlin after breaking the previous track record and taking the pole for the event. Kurt Busch finished 3rd followed by Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers completed the top-10.

Next weekend NASCAR’s premier division will take on the Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway.

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