Long Pond, PA (Sports Network) - Denny Hamlin ended a 50-race winless streak
in the Sprint Cup Series in what was an emotional victory for the Joe Gibbs
Racing driver in Monday's rain-delayed Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at
Pocono Raceway.
Hamlin scored his fifth career victory in the series three days after his
grandmother, Thelma Clark, passed away in Tampa, FL at the age of 91.
"We definitely had some angels with us today," Hamlin said in Victory Lane
as he broke down in tears.
Hamlin, who put on a dominating performance with 91 laps led, passed Clint
Bowyer with 10 laps remaining. He then held off Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.869
seconds for his first victory since March 2008 at Martinsville.
"We've come close in a lot of races this year but came up short," he said.
During his 2006 rookie-of-the-year season, Hamlin won both races at Pocono,
joining Jimmie Johnson as the only drivers who swept a track in the same
season. In June, he finished a season-worst 38th-place finish in the Pocono
500 after suffering engine trouble in the opening laps.
Montoya moved around Bowyer with eight laps remaining en route to a season-
best second-place finish. He capitalized on a pit strategy late in the race
when he pitted just before the eighth caution came on lap 165.
"We had a great strategy, and we had good fuel mileage," Montoya said.
Montoya dominated last week's race at Indianapolis, but a pit-road speeding
penalty in the late-stages cost him the victory. He finished 11th.
Bowyer and Sam Hornish Jr. were among those drivers who did not pit during the
final round of stops. Bowyer hung on for a third-place finish, while Hornish
Jr. came in fourth, his best performance in his two-year Sprint Cup career.
"It hasn't really been going our way exactly all year long, so it feels good
to have something swing your way a little bit," Bowyer said.
Kasey Kahne completed the top-five.
Brian Vickers finished sixth, followed by Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch
and Tony Stewart, who started from the rear of the field in a backup after
wrecking in Saturday's practice.
Stewart dealt with an ill-handing car in the early going, but rebounded nicely
to take a 197-point lead over Jimmie Johnson, who came in 13th.
Johnson, too, struggled early when engine trouble put him a total of three
laps down. After his crew change the spark plugs, Johnson was able to benefit
from several late-race cautions to get back on the lead lap via the free pass.
"I assume it was a spark plug issue," said Johnson, who won last week at
Indianapolis. "That was the last thing we started changing, and then the car
started running better. It's just crazy sometimes how something can go wrong.
I know our guys will look at it closely so it doesn't happen again."
With the victory, Hamlin moved up to fifth in points (-475). Since the Pocono
500 seven races ago, he has climbed seven positions in the standings.
Kyle Busch finished 16th and moved up one spot to 13th in points. Busch is 101
points behind 12th-place Greg Biffle with five races to go before the "Chase
for the Sprint Cup" championship begins.
The 500-mile race at Pocono, which was delayed one day because of rain,
featured 10 cautions, including one for a six-car pileup with 20 laps to
go. David Ragan bumped Bobby Labonte from behind, turning Labonte around.
Reed Sorenson, Joey Logano, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Burton and David
Reutimann all wrecked while trying to avoid the incident.