Hamlin dominates Pocono again

Hamlin won his maiden points victory at the same track just six weeks ago, and was again simply a class above the rest at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. He led three-quarters of the race's 200 laps having started from pole position.

Considering the 25-year-old had never even seen Pocono before June's race, his two pole positions and two victories are a remarkable result for his rookie season.

"It was pretty uneventful," Hamlin said afterwards. "It is great to come here and do it again, we were just so strong. This car is such a great car, and the result is more about the team than anything else. No matter what we did on the pit stops we had the best car throughout."

The result moves Hamlin up to eighth in the championship, the highest-ranking rookie. Should he be in the same position in six races time, he will be the first rookie to make the NASCAR's Chase play-off.

"Fate is going to decide if we make this Chase," Hamlin added. "Someone is going to have some bad luck, I just hope we don't and we get there."

Continuing the sense of deja vu was 2004 champion Kurt Busch, who finished second, 1.4 seconds behind Hamlin. Busch also finished second in the June race at Pocono.

"Denny was so fast," said Busch, who won this race last year. "If he wasn't in the series we would have three in a row here. We got all we could."

Jeff Gordon finished a distant third to maintain his ninth place standing in the standings, ahead of Brian Vickers, who repeated his fourth place finish from the June race.

Kevin Harvick just held off a charging Jimmie Johnson at the finish for fifth, despite Johnson being on fresher tyres. It was Harvick's best career finish at Pocono.

Reigning Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart put his run of recent poor results behind him with seventh, but not before providing the race's major talking point.

Stewart was racing hard with Clint Bowyer on the 33rd of the race's 200 laps, when Stewart became angry with Bowyer because he felt the Richard Childress Racing rookie had pressed him too far towards the wall on the exit on the Turn 3.

Stewart waved his fist out of the window of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, before simply turning left and driving into Bowyer and sending him into a spin, which collected Chase contender Carl Edwards.

Edwards' car was severely damaged in the incident and went a lap down while repairs were made to his Ford Fusion.

Meanwhile, NASCAR officials penalised Stewart a lap for aggressive driving in the incident.

However, 33 laps later Edwards delivered his own brand of karma, and spun Stewart on the entry to pit lane.

Edwards was also held a lap by NASCAR for his antics, however from that point on Stewart and Edward's fortunes contrasted.

Edwards limped home and finished four laps down in 39th, but Stewart unlapped himself quickly and worked his way back up through the field.

Stewart's result moves him back in the Chase positions after he fell out following his crash at New Hampshire last week.

Edwards was not the only Chase contender to hit trouble. Dale Earnhardt Jr had his second 43rd and last-place finish in succession. Following on from his engine failure at Loudon last weekend, Earnhardt was pitched into a spin by Dave Blaney on the back straight and into the wall, which eventually led to retirement.

With Stewart moving back into the top ten, Earnhardt fell out, despite being in fourth place just two races ago.

Results

Pos  Driver              Make      Laps
 1.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  200
 2.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      200
 3.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  200
 4.  Brian Vickers       Chevrolet  200
 5.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  200
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  200
 7.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  200
 8.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      200
 9.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  200
10.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  200
11.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  200
12.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  200
13.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet  200
14.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       200
15.  Ken Schrader        Ford       200
16.  Dave Blaney         Dodge      200
17.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  200
18.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      200
19.  Mark Martin         Ford       200
20.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       200
21.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  200
22.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      200
23.  Casey Mears         Dodge      200
24.  Greg Biffle         Ford       200
25.  Terry Labonte       Chevrolet  200
26.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      200
27.  Travis Kvapil       Chevrolet  200
28.  Dale Jarrett        Ford       200
29.  David Stremme       Dodge      199
30.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  199
31.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      199
32.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       199
33.  Stephen Leicht      Ford       199
34.  Kevin Lepage        Dodge      199
35.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  199
36.  Jimmy Spencer       Chevrolet  199
37.  Jeremy Mayfield     Dodge      199
38.  Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  196
39.  Carl Edwards        Ford       196
40.  Michael Waltrip     Dodge      195
41.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  194
42.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      117
43.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  115