Denny Digs Deep For Emotional Win

To compete at auto racing’s highest level, it takes the best you’ve got. It’s not just one team against another, it’s 43 guys with almost as many agendas all fighting to be the one who crosses the finish line first as the checkered flag waves.

Grieving over the loss of his grandmother, Denny Hamlin digs deep, fights off fierce competition and wins the race at Pocono as if to honor the memory of  Thelma Clark. It has been this observer’s opinion that Hamlin’s soft underbelly has been his reaction to adversity, but on this day, he reached inside and took a fast car to victory- his third victory at Pocono Raceway.

Though he started in a good position and unloaded a fast car, no one handed Hamlin the win. Jimmie Johnson started out front and looked like a runaway favorite through this first 20 laps. Hamlin won the race off pit road after a “competition caution” in the wake of the recent rains.

Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards provided Hamlin plenty of early competition, until a mysterious engine problem threw a monkey wrench into the “48’s” plans. Was it spark plug wires? Was it a carburetor? Johnson and his team systematically work through all the issues to try to keep the car alive. At lap 134, Johnson was scored in 36th place and 3 laps down.

As Johnson’s fortunes faded, Tony Stewart’s came alive. After fighting loose conditions throughout the early race, Smoke pits right before the 4th caution of the race comes out, putting him back in the mix.

It was also right around mid-race that Kyle Busch- who had been running top 10 for much of the early going- saw his car head south. Juan Pablo Montoya, who took the first spot heading into pit road, found himself sliding through his pit box on two occasions.

Kasey Kahne was strong and took the lead in the races middle stages. Kahne brought with him another contingent of competitors that included David Reutimann, who came into the race just outside the chase, Matt Kenseth- who sat just inside the bubble and Kevin Harvick- a guy who’s theme song for 2009 might very well be “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

Hamlin took the lead back from Kahne at lap 139. Not long afterwards, David Ragan tagged the wall in much the same fashion that Bobby Labonte did earlier to bring out a caution. Enter Mark Martin and Brian Vickers, two more racers needing good days into the fray- along with Sam Hornish Jr.

No race is completing without a little good old-fashioned vehicular fisticuffs. David Stremme and Robby Gordon delivered. At one point, “Flash” promised he’d wreck the #12, but it would be contact from Stremme that initiated a wreck to bring out another caution. Stremme would get a “time out” for aggressive driving, Gordon would get penalized for something we wouldn’t see on camera.

Hey, it’s not a party until somebody breaks something.

Clint Bowyer decides to get in on the fun and takes the lead late with Scott Speed in tow. Dale Earnhardt Jr. appears to be getting involved until Hamlin gets into the back of Reutimann, who in turn wrecks teammate Marcos Ambrose. The melee deals a serious blow to Reutimann’s hopes of making the chase as the “Double-Ought” sits in 16th behind Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers.

For Rowdy Shrub, things went from bad to worse as he makes contact with the wall. The hole gets little deeper for Busch as he now sits 101 points out of 12th.

Contact from David Ragan sent Bobby Labonte into the wall for a hard lick. Labonte slowed into a turn with a gaggle of traffic in front of him, and the #6 plows into the 2000 champion. The incident also collects Joey Logano, Reed Sorenson and Michael Waltrip and sends Reutimann into the grass.

As the laps begin ticking off, the final re-start sets up a battle between Bowyer, Hamlin and Montoya, with Hornish and Kahne poised to pounce on a slip. Sniffing out a victory, Hamlin takes the lead from Bowyer with 10 laps remaining to check out for the win.

As close as he’s come, only to fall short, Denny Hamlin left no doubt about the outcome. An emotionally overcome Hamlin is welcomed with hugs in a subdued victory celebration.

It was a day for comebacks. Chad Knaus chipped away at the “48’s” engine issues and the persistence paid off with a 13th place finish. The defending champ gets my vote for this race’s “Rocky Balboa Award” for getting off the canvas to pull out a respectable finish. Tony Stewart also overcame his early race maladies to take 10th.

Montoya, Bowyer, Hornish and Kahne round out the top five. For Hornish the finish is a career best. Brian Vickers registers another solid finish with a 6th and though Mark Martin took 7th, he actually slipped to 10th in the points with JPM’s highly productive day. Jeff Gordon finished a quiet 8th, Kurt Busch took 9th and Smoke rounded out the top 10.

Getting a win in this series is no walk in the park. Just ask the Rick Masts, the Kenny Wallace’s and all the other good drivers who never enjoyed the spoils of a NASCAR Cup victory. To do it on a day when your heart is heavy, and your somewhere else, says a great deal about your intestinal fortitude.

If you can overcome those kind of emotions to beat 42 of the best drivers in the world on a day like, this isn’t much else you can’t do. Props to Denny Hamlin, Mike Ford and the gang at Joe Gibbs Racing.

PHOTO CREDITS- Courtesy of Getty Images for NASCAR. Hamlin and JD Gibbs by Chris Trotman, Stewart and Darian Grubb and Johnosn in the pits by Rusty Jarrett, Hamlin at the finish by Doug Pensinger.