Gibbs: Hamlin can fight for title

Hamlin won the race despite lying in 40th a quarter of the way through, after needing to come into the pits several times to repair damage from a high-speed spin due to a blown tyre.

What made the victory even more impressive was that Hamlin had never driven at Pocono before the weekend, because the NASCAR Busch series does not race at the Pennsylvania track.

The result moved him into ninth place in the championship table, and within the provision Chase positions when the points are reset in 12 races time.

"Is it possible? Yeah, it's definitely possible," Gibbs said about a possible championship attack.

"You just have to be real careful and just worry about each race. You can speculate all you want. We've got the people to do it.

"It's just a matter of focusing on each race. We learned that with Tony last year."

Hamlin also believes it is possible that he can win the title, because he is already one position higher in the standings than teammate and reigning champion Tony Stewart was at the same point last season.

"I see a lot of the same things with this team that the No. 20 car did at this time last year," Hamlin said.

"It's all going to be based on eliminating your mistakes and bad problems. The first eight races, every other finish was outside of the top 30.

"We were a top 10 car contending every single week. We just had bad luck. It seems like these last five or six weeks that we've been running top 10's about every week, we've just eliminated our problems and we're just showing our potential as a race team."

Although the Pocono win is his first championship race victory, it is his second Nextel Cup victory overall. Hamlin became the first rookie to win the non-championship Budweiser shoot-out at Daytona in February.