Rookie Denny Hamlin won his first NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Pocono in June. He'd never raced there before. On Friday he won the pole for today's return to Pocono and was definitely the favourite to win. And Hamlin was just outside the top ten in points. So a big day would get him back in The Chase.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin-#11 FedEx Kinko's Chevy led the first part of the race. On lap 31, Tony Stewart-#20 Home Depot Chevy gave Clint Bowyer-#07 Jack Daniels Chevy the finger and rammed him into Carl Edwards-#99 Office Depot Ford and both guys crashed. The replays showed that Bowyer almost ran Stewart into the wall. Stewart was penalized a lap for rough driving but he came back to finish 7th and get back to the top ten. The crash was very costly for Edwards and likely knocked him out of The Chase. Then he did something really stupid. On lap 66, Edwards spun Stewart out on pit road. Edwards was black flagged for rough driving and finished 39th.
Just to show how quickly things can go bad, two weeks ago Dale Earnhardt Jr-#8 Budweiser Chevy was third in the points. He blew an engine last week in New Hampshire, finished 43rd and dropped to seventh. This week on lap 87 Dave Blaney-#22 Caterpillar Dodge bumped Earnhardt from behind, Earnhardt crashed and finshed 43rd again and dropped to 11th in the points. Yikes!
The end of the race came down to everyone trying to find pit or fuel strategy to outfox Denny Hamlin. No one could pass him on the track. The strategy went out the window when a caution came out on lap 179 when Scott Wimmer-#4 Chevy blew a tire. Hamlin had no trouble winning after that.
Congratulations to Denny Hamlin, crew chief Mike Ford and car owner Joe Gibbs on the win. A rookie sweeping a pair of races is pretty cool. Kurt Busch's second place keeps him in contention for The Chase. Jimmie Johnson finished sixth and still leads the points. Big top tens for Brian Vickers, Bobby Labonte & Martin Truex Jr. Nextel Cup is off next week but are at Indy for the Brickyard 400 in two weeks. Here's the top ten of the race.
#/Driver/Sponsor/Make/Owner
1.11/Denny Hamlin/FedEx Kinko's/Chevy/Joe Gibbs
2.2/Kurt Busch/Miller Lite/Dodge/Roger Penske
3.24/Jeff Gordon/Dupont/Chevy/Rick Hendrick
4.25/Brian Vickers/GMAC/Chevy/Rick Hendrick
5.29/Kevin Harvick/GM Goodwrench/Chevy/Richard Childress
6.48/Jimmie Johnson/Lowe's/Chevy/Rick Hendrick
7.20/Tony Stewart/Home Depot/Chevy/Joe Gibbs
8.43/Bobby Labonte/Cheerios/Dodge/Petty Enterprises
9.31/Jeff Burton/Cingular/Chevy/Richard Childress
10.1/Martin Truex Jr/Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/Dale Earnhardt Inc.
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