Hamlin wins Busch race at Michigan

Hamlin led 69 laps, more than half the distance, and had little opposition from the Roush Fenway driver since their last pitstops, which came under green flag conditions past the halfway point of the race.

The fans and Hamlin's rivals were expecting a caution flag to bring things back to status quo, but there were no incidents after the green flag waved at the end of the last caution period of the day on lap 36 of 125.

"I knew if I just saved that right front tyre we were going to be better in the long run," said Hamlin, who had damaged his car after making contact with the wall during Friday practice.

"I knew about five-six laps into a run, when out car started coming on, that we were going to have the car to beat. I pancaked the wall, so I gave [my team] some extra work yesterday. Here's the way to make up for it today."

Kenseth could only watch how Hamlin drove into the distance, finishing nearly seven seconds behind the Joe Gibbs driver. He had nothing to do against Hamlin's pace in the end, despite racing him hard in the first part of the race.

"I had a really good car today," Kenseth said. "It was real fun there with Denny. We could've had a shot at him but we got a little bit off in the end there and really we just got beat out in the finish and that was kind of the difference."

Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and pole-sitter Greg Biffle rounded up the top five. Mark Martin, who was running sixth in the No. 5 Hendrick car just before the end of the race, was a victim of the shortage of caution flags, running out of fuel in the last lap to finish 14th.

Brad Kaselowski, driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr, ran in the top ten in the end, but was another one falling short of stretching his fuel mileage dropping him to 13th, despite a solid run which he hopes helps him secure his seat for the balance of the season.

Brian Vickers was among the six leaders of the race, completing 19 laps up front after starting from the front row of the grid.

He lost any chance of victory when he pitted for fuel in the last caution of the day, expecting to profit from his strategy gamble in a later caution that never arrived. He still finished 6th as the best placed Toyota.

Points' leader Carl Edwards continued his run of bad results and crossed the chequer flag in 28th after an early incident with Ganassi's Reed Sorenson. He has seen his lead in the championship just slightly cut to 700 points to Kevin Harvick, who jumped David Reutimann in the standings.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   125
 2.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        125
 3.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   125
 4.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   125
 5.  Greg Biffle         Ford        125
 6.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      125
 7.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   125
 8.  Todd Bodine         Toyota      125
 9.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   125
10.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   125
11.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        125
12.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   124
13.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet   124
14.  Jason Leffler       Toyota      124
15.  Brad Coleman        Chevrolet   124
16.  David Reutimann     Toyota      124
17.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   124
18.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   124
19.  Marcos Ambrose      Ford        124
20.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       124
21.  David Ragan         Ford        124
22.  Jason Keller        Chevrolet   124
23.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet   124
24.  David Stremme       Dodge       124
25.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       124
26.  Stephen Leicht      Ford        124
27.  Bobby Hamilton Jr   Ford        124
28.  Carl Edwards        Ford        124
29.  David Gilliland     Ford        123
30.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   123
31.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       123
32.  Kelly Bires         Ford        123
33.  Brian Keselowski    Dodge       123
34.  Kyle Krisiloff      Ford        122
35.  Ward Burton         Ford        122
36.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   122
37.  Steve Wallace       Dodge       122
38.  Bobby East          Ford        121
39.  Mark Green          Chevrolet   108
40.  Brent Sherman       Chevrolet    65
41.  Morgan Shepherd     Dodge        22
42.  Kevin Hamlin        Dodge         7
43.  Kertus Davis        Chevrolet     6