Denny Hamlin laid down a dominating performance in Pocono this weekend. He won the pole and then lead 151 out of 200 laps on his way to the easy win. The race itself was not much in doubt but the battle for tenth in points kept the race interesting at Pocono Raceway.

Qualifying

June race winner Denny Hamlin proved that he still liked Pocono as he took the pole for the race. The next two spots went to the Dodges of Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.


The rest of the top five were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon.

Once again Ford drivers struggled in qualifying. The top Ford starter was Matt Kenseth who started eleventh.

Drop The Green Flag

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman tiptoed off into turn one and off onto the Long Pond straight side-by-side. Newman gave way in the tunnel turn and Hamlin set the pace early in the race.

Goodyear brought a new tire compound and rain caused teams to miss out on some practice before the race. NASCAR threw a competition caution on lap 20 to allow teams to check tire wear with the new tires. Denny Hamlin had already stretched out a huge 7.7 second lead by that time.

Early in the race the question seemed to be not if Denny Hamlin would win again in Pocono, but by how much?

Storylines

On lap 31 Clint Bowyer ran Tony Stewart up the track and Stewart brushed the wall. Stewart shook his hand out the window and then turned left into Bowyer's front fender. Bowyer tried to avoid the angry Stewart and hit Carl Edwards.

Bowyer and Edwards both took damage ending their chances.

Tony Stewart has a history of anger issues. At one point in his career NASCAR even mandated that Stewart attend anger management courses. This incident shows that Stewart's famous temper is still not under control.

Stewart received a black flag for "rough driving" and Tony was put a lap down. On the next caution Carl Edwards turned Tony Stewart around on pit road. This appeared to be payback for Stewart's previous aggressive move against Bowyer that caused Edwards to crash. Edwards then got a black flag of his own.

Chasing The Checkers

The green flag flew for the final time with 16 laps to go. Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch chased Denny Hamlin to the green flag. Kurt got around Jeff Gordon for second and set sail for Denny Hamlin. Busch was fast but he just didn't have enough anything to threaten Hamlin.

Denny continued his domination of Pocono 2006. Denny completed the sweep, winning both the June race and the July race in 2006. Both of those victories the rookie won from the pole.

Top Ten

1. Denny Hamlin
2. Kurt Busch
3. Jeff Gordon
4. Brian Vickers
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Tony Stewart
8. Bobby Labonte
9. Jeff Burton
10. Martin Truex Jr.

The Points

Jimmie Johnson had a solid sixth place finish to maintain his points lead.

Both Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart moved into the top ten as Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had bad runs posting bad finishes.

The top ten in points are now:

1. Jimmie Johnson -0
2. Matt Kenseth -97
3. Jeff Burton -318
4. Kyle Busch -357
5. Kevin Harvick -376
6. Mark Martin -382
7. Kasey Kahne -424
8. Denny Hamlin -425
9. Jeff Gordon -427
10. Tony Stewart -462

Next Week

The NEXTEL Cup stars have next week off. In two weeks the teams will visit the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.