Hamlin plays it safe and settles for second

MEXICO CITY -- Faced with the choice of winning Sunday's Telcel-Motorola 200 by spinning out Juan Montoya or settling for second place, Denny Hamlin decided he'd rather not be Public Enemy Numero Uno.

"I kind of took a lesson from Kyle Busch," Hamlin said. "I'd have had to fight my way out of here if I would have won that race."

Montoya spins Pruett en route to first win

Juan Montoya overcame a fuel problem and a spinning Scott Pruett to win the Telcel-Motorola 200 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

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One year ago, Busch took out Michel Jourdain Jr. while going for the lead late in the race, a move that eventually handed Hamlin the victory. Faced with a similar situation on Sunday, Hamlin wanted no part of a repeat performance and the resulting fan revolt.

Still, Hamlin was able to get to Montoya's bumper heading into the esses on the next-to-last restart, but decided against proceeding any further.

"I had him lifted up right there where I could have throttled up and gotten underneath him but I knew if I didn't knock him out of the way enough to send him back to like third or fourth, then he was going to end up plowing me the next time he got to me," Hamlin said.

Hamlin admitted he was working hard just to keep Montoya from pulling away over the final few laps.

"It didn't seem like his car was as line-sensitive as mine," Hamlin said. "I had to hit my marks perfect every single lap just to stay in the ballpark and he could pretty much hustle it and do anything he wanted. It was just his day."

Hamlin only led one lap Sunday, coming early in the race as teams opted for pit strategy. When Montoya and teammate Scott Pruett ducked on pit road for fuel and tires on Lap 10, Hamlin assumed the top spot.

However, he pitted on the next lap. Once the entire field cycled through the pits following the race's first caution, Hamlin was third behind Montoya and Pruett.

He and Boris Said swapped third position over the next few laps but following another set of green-flag stops, Hamlin was 19 seconds behind Montoya.

Then things got interesting. Montoya's fuel troubles moved Hamlin back to second behind Pruett while Montoya was busy charging back up through the field after restarting 21st.

One lap after the Lap 67 restart, Montoya caught and passed Hamlin, setting up the incident that put Montoya in front for good. When Montoya's apparent impatience got the better of him, Hamlin avoided Pruett's spinning car and was more than pleased to find himself second.

"The two Ganassi cars seemed to be the class of the field," Hamlin said. "They could walk away at will. We had a third-place car. One teammate took care of the other so we finished second."