June 7, 2010
By Ron Felix
At the end of last season, Denny Hamlin made the statement that he was the guy to challenge Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup title in 2010 and at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, he proved that he really can be the driver to snatch away Johnson's fifth straight championship.
Denny Hamlin picked up his fourth victory of the 2010 season by edging out his teammate Kyle Busch in a green-white-checkers finish at Pocono.
The Gillette Fusion 500 was rain-delayed for nearly two hours while a short weather front moved through the area and soaked the track just as the drivers were getting ready for the initial green flag.
CIA Stock Photos
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Hamlin Does A Huge Burnout
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Hamlin led 88 of the 204 laps to win his fourth of nine Sprint Cup races at Pocono. The victory was Hamlin's 12th of 165 career races in the series.
“That was an extremely long race for us," said crew chief Mike Ford. "The first hundred laps went pretty eventless. I knew Denny (Hamlin) was making laps, trying to work on our car, wasn't really pushing the car, but made it difficult to adjust knowing that he was leaving a little bit out. But, you get the first half of the race here at Pocono clean, you know the second half is going to get pretty active. I was real concerned about that. It turned out to be that way.
"You had different tire strategies, fuel strategies, then you had guys on three different sequences of tires at the end of the day to add for a pretty eventful end to the race. Track position was key. I think the key for us winning that race was two restarts that Denny made when we gave up track position. You didn't want to give up track position, but you needed fuel at some point.”
Hamlin apparently had the race won with only a few left to get the white flag, the "One more to go flag", was displayed when Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano tangled -- resulting in a spin for Logano. That set up green-white-checkers finish.
“I probably could’ve got to that white flag in time," said Hamlin. "But I started backing off just in case we needed it -- fuel mileage -- and he (Mike Ford, crew chief) said, ‘No, get that white as soon as you can.’ I literally just kept focusing on that light and I saw it turn yellow right before I got to the line. We just flat out drove through those guys. It was similar to what our win was last year and it was just a great car. The best it was all day was that last run."
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) and Toyota have won six of the last nine NSCS races.
“I think what's happened to us, our drivers and our teams have done a great job of working together," said car owner Joe Gibbs. "As an example, I think here obviously Denny (Hamlin), this is his favorite race track. If you would have asked Kyle (Busch) last week, he probably would have rated this the toughest race track for him. Joey (Logano), very similar statements would come from him. I think they've kind of fed off of Denny and Mike (Ford, crew chief). Crew chiefs Zippy (Greg Zipadelli, 20 crew chief) and David (Rogers, 18 crew chief) over there, have fed a lot off the 11 car.
"People say you have three different cars, but really truly it takes great teamwork at this level. I think it's been Kyle at some mile-and-a-half stuff helping Denny. So, I think right now both of them have really helped Joey. Joey, I thought this was probably his best race today. We were extremely disappointed with what happened there (with Harvick). I also think right now teamwork has been the key for us. We've got all three of our guys right now, we're thrilled about where we are. Now this can all turn on a dime. We know how pro sports are. I'm never confident or I don't think anybody on our team feels like we've arrived for sure. It's just the last seven, eight weeks, we've had a very good seven, eight weeks. That's very hard to do in pro sports.”
Tony Stewart finished third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Jimmie Johnson was fifth. Kurt Busch came from a lap down to take the sixth spot followed by Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger to round out the top ten.
Allmendinger caused a six car pileup on the final lap when he ran teammate Kasey Kahne to the infield grass. Kahne tried to save it but came back across the traffic -- taking out Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler and Marcos Ambrose.
“I am not really sure what happened," said Allmendinger. "Kasey (Kahne) had such a run on me and I went to defend. By the time I defended he was in the grass. That is my bad. I feel bad about that, I really do. It is what it is though.”
Greg Biffle was livid.
“I don’t know what his deal is. He totally caused that whole thing," Said Biffle. "If he is driving that blue car with the 43 on the side that put Kasey into the grass then yeah, it is on him. He ran him down on the grass. You can’t run a guy down on the grass. You can’t run your teammate down onto the grass. That is horrible. He could have backed out of that before he put him down like that.”
There were eight caution flags for a total of 26 laps. Also there were eight lead changes among 15 different drivers.
The Sprint Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday -- June 13th, 2010 -- for the Lifelock 400.
Michigan will be the 15th race in the Chase for the Championship. Mark Martin was the winner at Michigan in 2009.
The race will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
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