After heavy rains delayed the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway, it was heavy hearts that ultimately provided the motivation for Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team.  The group put an extremely fast FedEx Express Camry on the racetrack Monday afternoon and then let dedication drive their efforts, leading a race-high 91 laps to claim a third win at the 2.5-mile track and put to rest a winless streak that had reached 50 races.


“We’ve come close in a lot of races this year and come up short so it feels great to get this win today,” said Hamlin.  “We definitely had some angels with us today.  We did a great job on pit road.  Those guys picked me up and just got me ahead of the guys I needed to get past on the last run and we just drove it to the front from there.  I gave Mike (Ford, crew chief) some good information.  He just took it and ran with it.  Just had a great setup, an adjustable setup.  When we needed to make changes, he improved on it every time.  When you can do that, you can execute and that’s great.  But it’s still hard to win.  It’s still hard to win when you have fuel mileage and guys off sequence.  When you line up 14th with about 30 to go and you’re about three-tenths slower, we had a tall, tall hill to climb.  I said in my mind that I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than a win.  With every corner I went in, that was 120 percent.”


A well-devised strategy kept Hamlin on fresh rubber and with enough fuel to make the end, meaning he was in position to challenge even when he dropped back in the field.  With the lead cars out of sequence, Hamlin dropped as far as 14th with 30 laps to go but charged forward through the oft-interrupted final segment of the race.   The final caution of the day, brought out by a multiple car wreck in turn one, kept the field under caution for five laps – causing Hamlin and the team to wonder if there would be enough time to get to the front went the race finally went green.


There concerns were put aside when Hamlin passed then leader Clint Bowyer to claim the point on lap 191, then held off Juan Pablo Montoya as the laps counted down to take the win.


“I told him (Denny Hamlin) earlier, we’re going to lobby for a few extra races at Pocono,” said J.D. Gibbs, President of Joe Gibbs Racing.  “It was an emotional race for us across the board.  We came so close so many times but something bit us, and we’d come up short.  That meant a lot for the guys.  For Denny (Hamlin), this weekend, losing his grandmother, another guy losing his mom, it was just a real emotional race for us.  I think we’ll really enjoy this one.”


Montoya held on for second place while Bowyer, Sam Hornish Jr. and Kasey Kahne filled out the top five.  Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano finished 16th and 27th, respectively.


The Chesterfield (Va.) native’s first win of the 2009 season sees him climb from sixth to fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points heading to Watkins Glen.  He currently sits 251 points clear of the Chase for the Sprint Cup cutoff.  Busch sits just outside the top-12, in 13th place, while Logano stays in 19th place through 21 races.


From the start of the race, it was clear Hamlin had a car capable of being a major factor before the day was over.  The two-time Pocono winner wasted no time moving forward, claiming third place only two laps in and holding that spot until NASCAR called a competition caution on lap 20.  The caution gave a highly-motivated FedEx pit crew the chance to show their best and they pulled off a very-quick stop to send Hamlin out in the lead.


“From lap one, I knew we had a good race car,” said Mike Ford, Crew Chief of the #11 FedEx Express Camry.  “I was curious with the race track being so green, the work that had been done, if you started good, you weren’t going to stay good.  By that competition yellow at 20, it looked like our car came in really nice, after about five or six laps.  My biggest concern at that point was, is the track going to stay consistent and how are we going to chase it.  Our car was pretty good.  We really just made very small changes all day.  I’m kind of surprised it didn’t change.”


With the clean air afforded the leader, Hamlin posted fast lap after fast lap as he held off the ferocious challenge of Hendrick Motor Sports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.   By lap 44 Hamlin had stretched his lead over Johnson to two seconds and he kept the #11 clear of the field until the caution flew on lap 53.  On pit road Crew Chief Mike Ford called for four tires and fuel, and the crew worked fast again to maintain the lead spot.


Once again, the #48 and #24 Chevrolets pressured early only for Hamlin to pull steadily away until the caution flag waved again on lap 63.  Hamlin would stay out and lead the entire next segment before Ford called him to pit road for fuel on lap 90.


With green flag stops and then a caution in quick succession, fuel strategy then took center stage and Hamlin was forced to run outside of the top-five as he waited for the scenarios to play out.   At the halfway point he was scored in ninth place, but he again charged forward.  By lap 108 he took fifth place and then found his way back into the top-three by lap 116.


On lap 127, then leader Kasey Kahne pulled onto pit road and Hamlin took advantage of the lead to open up a large gap back to second place before pitting himself on lap 131.  The team worked fast again and it only took Hamlin six laps to regain the lead once he cycled through.


With the caution out on lap 142, Hamlin pulled onto pit road for four tires and fuel, however as the rest of the leaders started opting for two tires behind him – Ford and the #11 team spotter, Curtis Markham, changed strategies on the fly and opted for two tires to ensure the team didn’t sacrifice too much in the way of position.


Through cautions on lap 151 and 157, Hamlin ran in the top-ten but was happy to return to pit road for four fresh tires on lap 165.  After restarting 14th on lap 168, Hamlin had the car he wanted and the drive he needed.  He carved through the field, claiming ninth place when the caution flew on lap 175.   He made similar gains in the next segment and set himself up to capture an elusive Cup Series win.