Hamlin sweeps his way into the Chase
This guys for real.
Denny Hamlin again dominated at Pocono Raceway Sunday winning the Pennsylvania 500 and completing a sweep of both events in
2006.
In June Hamlin was forced to battle his way through the field after blowing a tire early in the race.
Sunday there was no such dramatic story for Hamlin.
Hamlin led from the pole, pulled out to a significant lead, and never looked back leading the most laps on the day, 151 to
score his 2nd win of the year.
“Our FedEx Chevy was just so good that no matter what we did – two tires, four tires, no tires – it was the best car on the
racetrack,” Hamlin said. “We unloaded real good and stayed strong through Sunday.”
Denny Hamlin holds up the trophy after winning the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., Sunday, July 23,
2006.
(AP Photo/Russ Hamilton)
Pennsylvania 500 Results
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Behind him though the drama was intense though as for the second week in a row the point standings from third place back were
scrambled. The biggest losers were Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Junior who finished 43rd for the second straight week.
Biffle came to pit road on Lap 107 when he thought he had a tire going down. His crew changed tires found nothing wrong with
the ones that had just came off, and Biffle reentered the race, struggling the rest of the day and finished 24th. He now sits
12th in the points, 506 out of first place.
-(Cont'd from front page)
On Lap 85 Dave Blaney tapped Earnhardt in between turns two and three. Dale Junior got loose, spun into the wall and headed for the garage. Earnhardt would return to run for points but would retire with 15 Laps to go finish 43rd and fell to 11th in the standings.
“I don’t think he meant to wreck me,” a clearly dejected Earnhardt said. “I don’t know why he would do that. He’s a pretty nice guy, and we always got along as friends. But it’s a pretty weird deal. I just got run over on the straightaway, and I tried to save it, but I just got too far behind on the wheel there.”
The biggest gainers were Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart
Johnson finished 6th and increased his points lead to 97 over Matt Kenseth who came home 14th.
Tony Stewart overcame an eventful day for finish directly behind Johnson in 7th.
For the second week in a row, Stewart was involved in an early race altercation that nearly proved disastrous for the defending series champion.
On Lap31 Clint Bowyer pushed Stewart up the racetrack coming out of turn 3. On the front stretch Stewart gestured to Bowyer than came down into him. Bowyer was forced down into Carl Edwards. Edwards received the worst end of the deal suffering major damage from which he would never fully recover.
NASCAR penalized Stewart for rough driving, brought him in for a lap.
Edwards would lose a lap on the first incident and another after he later retaliated on a yellow flag pit stop, hitting Stewart and spinning him around. NASCAR would black flag Edwards who would struggle the entire day finally finishing 4 Laps down in 39th. Even worse for the Roush Racing driver, he lost a precious spot in the points and will have s pray for a miracle if he hopes to make the cutoff for the Chase in just 6 races.
The day clearly belonged to Hamlin though, who despite a late race charge from Kurt Busch, never had any serious threat in route to his second Cup points win in 2006 and the third of his career.
"Pretty uneventful for once," said Hamlin. "It was really great to come here and do this again. Man, the car was strong. We did just quarter-turns and this, that and the other all day. It was a pretty good day for us.
"It is just a great race car. This is more about the team than anything else. I am proud to be with all the people I am with at Joe Gibbs Racing and Mike (Ford) is such a great crew chief. He prepares the car perfect every single week and it is up to me to get the job done."
Kurt Busch seemed satisfied with second.
"It was a good effort for our team,” Busch said. “I was just told that we didn't have a pit stop that was out of the 13-second bracket. To be able to do that on pit road is just great."
Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
“We were really just a third place car all day, “Gordon said. “To hit the summer with this kind of stride, I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential,”
Hamlin now joins an exclusive list of drivers who have swept the events at Pocono.
Jimmie Johnson, Tim Richmond, Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, Bobby Allison have all won both events in the same year at Pocono and Hamlin can now count himself among that group.
He can also count himself among the top ten in points with a chance to compete for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
We’ll just keep plugging away,” Hamlin said. “Fate’s going to decide this Chase.”
The series takes a week off before heading to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the running of the Brickyard 400.
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