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Hamlin Wins First Sprint Race in 2009, at Pocono

Denny Hamlin finally got one in 2009, as he secured first place at the chequerd flag of the Sprint Cup event at Pocono Raceway. The Joe Gibbs Racing clearly had the fastest car of the day on Monday, as he led the rain-delayed race in Pennsylvania for almost half the distance.

However, in the late stages of the race, Hamlin had no option but to see himself dropped down the pack due to some great tire & fuel strategies from the other competitors. With 13 laps to go, he was racing in 7th place and determined to make the most of the last double-file restart of the day. In only 3 laps, the Toyota driver managed to get into the lead, passing Clint Bowyer for 1st place.

Hamlin used the next few laps to secure a comfortable lead up front, while Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya started to put pressure on Bowyer for the 2nd place. It didn't take the Chevy No 42 too much to pass his rival, yet he didn't have enough time to go after Hamlin as well. In the end, Montoya had to settle for 2nd place, his personal best on an oval track in the Sprint Cup Series, while followed by Bowyer in 3rd place.

Sam Hornish Jr. also scored his best result in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Monday, as the former IndyCar winner managed to cross the finish line in 4th place. Kasey Kahne followed him in 5th place, ahead of Brian Vickers, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

This is what we didn't get to show last week at the Brickyard and this is what we didn't get to show the first lap here in the summer race in June. I think our race team has been really good the last couple months. I feel like we've been the closest car to the Hendricks. We've been slowly but surely been working on it in the race shop and on pit road and we've just been getting there slowly but surely and today was a good day for us,” said Hamlin.

We were running like sixth at the beginning and I came in and overshoot the pits a little. You know, to get the ground back, it's so hard to pass people. We were making ground, but we had a great strategy. We had good fuel mileage and everyone on this team did an amazing job today,” added Montoya, who got to avenge his NASCAR-penalized performance at the Brickyard.

In the overall classification, Stewart is still dominant leader over Jimmie Johnson, only the 3-time Sprint champion is now just 2 points ahead of his teammate Jeff Gordon. Hamlin's win got him one place closer to the top of the standings, as he is now in 5th place overall.
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