Qualifying
Rookie Denny Hamlin landed the first pole position of his career this week. Since the Busch and Truck series don't run here Pocono is a race track that he had never raced on before. Denny credited racing the track on his computer with giving him some comfort and familiarity with the unique circuit. I am a huge fan of NASCAR Racing on the PC and it is nice to see that the real drivers make use of it too.
Kurt Busch put his Penske Dodge on the outside of the front row. Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers made up row number two. Jeff Burton rounded out the top five.
Drop The Green Flag
Right off the bat we had a caution on lap one. Scott Riggs lost the handle and spun up into Casey Mears. Mears got the worst of it as the back end of his car was heavily damaged. Riggs was able to continue on.
After they got it cleaned up and went back to green flag racing Denny Hamlin took the early lead and controlled the early portion of the race. Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton were running single file behind Hamlin as the drivers settled in for a long haul.
Storylines
Denny Hamlin had lead every single lap and had a massive six second lead on lap 51 when he cut down a tire and spun. He didn't hit anything but the tire itself ripped a hole the left rear fender. This was a terrible break for Hamlin as he had been dominating.
Denny Hamlin clawed his way back through the pack. He passed Greg Biffle for the lead with 37 laps to go. Clearly Hamlin had the best car and was able to drive it well. Denny Hamlin didn't panic and kept his cool to deliver a very impressive recovery after his early problems.
Chasing The Checkers
With just ten laps to go Jeff Gordon slammed the wall with the driver's side door. He got to the end of that massive front straightaway and lost the brakes at approximately 200 MPH. This was a brutal hit. Thank God for the SAFER barrier and all of the other safety innovations that NASCAR has mandated since 2001. Jeff Gordon climbed out of the car on his own and seemed to be fine.
The cleanup from this wreck brought out a red flag that set up a short five lap dash for the win. Denny Hamlin lead them to the green flag. Kurt Busch was chasing him like he had for most of the day. Tony Stewart was third. Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.
Hamlin got a clean restart and was never seriously challenged. The top five didn't change from the final restart.
Top Ten
- Denny Hamlin
- Kurt Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Brian Vickers
- Matt Kenseth
- Greg Biffle
- Kasey Kahne
- Scott Riggs
- Jeff Burton
- Jimmie Johnson
The Points
Jimmie Johnson again landed a top ten finish. However, Matt Kenseth was able to chip away at his lead a little.
Denny Hamlin's win broke him into the top ten in points as Jeff Gordon's incident dropped him from ninth in points all the way back to eleventh.
The top ten in points are now:
- Jimmie Johnson -0
- Matt Kenseth -48
- Mark Martin -238
- Tony Stewart -257
- Kasey Kahne -279
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -295
- Jeff Burton -387
- Kevin Harvick -430
- Denny Hamlin -463
- Kyle Busch -476
Next Week
Next week the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series makes its way to Brooklyn, Michigan. There they will find the fast, wide two-mile D-shaped oval known as Michigan International Speedway. This race typically sees very few cautions so pit strategy and fuel mileage are critical components of a good day.
