Hamlin pulls away for fourth victory at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. -- On a stormy Sunday turned sunny at Pocono Raceway, Denny Hamlin was the eye of the hurricane.

Hamlin won the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 at the 2.5-mile triangular track when an eight-car pileup on the Long Pond straightaway caused a caution that froze the running order on the final lap of a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Pocono 500

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Denny Hamlin	Toyota
2.	Kyle Busch	Toyota
3.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
4.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
5.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet

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As Hamlin drove his car to a celebration in Victory Lane, Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano stopped his Toyota beside the Chevrolet of fourth-place finisher and Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, climbed from his car and angrily confronted Harvick for spinning him in Turn 3 on Lap 199. It was the caution that forced the race into overtime.

Hamlin's day was far calmer as he drove to his series-leading fourth victory of the year, his fourth win in nine starts at Pocono and the 12th of his career. Pole-sitter Kyle Busch finished second and trimmed Harvick's lead in the Cup standings to 19 points.

Tony Stewart was third, followed by Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Juan Montoya, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger completed the top 10 in a race that saw a broad spectrum of pit strategies play into the finishing order.

Before the race, Hamlin wrote a note to himself on the dashboard of his No. 11 Toyota that said, "Conserve."

"I just knew I had to conserve my car the first half of the race, and we rode about third for most of the race up until the halfway point," Hamlin said. "Then we turned it up when we needed to, and it was just a great feeling.

"I hated to see that last caution [for Logano's spin] -- really got my nerves going."

"Conserve" was not the watchword, however, when Hamlin restarted 15th on Lap 172 of 204 behind 13 cars that had remained on the track under caution and behind Busch, who had beaten him out of the pits. (Continued)