Hamlin Holds Off Gordon To Finally  Capture Elusive CoT Victory

LOUDON N.H. — Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire Int’l Speedway was a landmark in the young career of winner Denny Hamlin.
“It’s the first time I’ve won when I didn’t have a really dominant car,” the 26-year-old Virginian declared. The second-year NASCAR Nextel Cup Series competitor solidified his stature as a championship contender with his first victory of the season, made possible by a two-tire stop with 45 laps remaining that vaulted him from fifth to the lead.
Point-leader Jeff Gordon took second from Martin Truex, Jr. with seven laps to go but was a full car length behind Hamlin at the checkered flag. Truex finished third, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who led the most laps, was fourth and Jimmie Johnson fifth.
Jeff Green scored his best Nextel Cup finish of the season in sixth, as Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman completed the top 10. Chevrolets swept the first eight places.
In a race of long green-flag runs, only 31 laps were run under six caution flags, and two complete green-flag pit-stop cycles contributed to 20 lead changes among 11 drivers. Hamlin, who started 11th, averaged 108.215 miles per hour and won $235,775.
“For the most part, we knew that we were a top five or six car, and  (crew chief) Mike Ford was biding his time on when to make that two-tire call. I knew if we just got that clean air we would be in better shape,” Hamlin explained. “I thought I could hold them off for about five laps and try for a good finish after that, but our car just took off.”

A LONELY VIEW: Suspended crew chief Tony Eury, Jr. watches his driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., from the motorcoach lot. (Phil Cavali Photo)

Indeed, Hamlin quickly established a 10-car-length lead over Truex at the lap-262 final restart. After 15 green-flag laps, Truex closed the gap, but before he could challenge the leader, he was racing Gordon for second and Hamlin pulled away again. Gordon closed rapidly after relieving Truex of second, but it was too little, too late.
“With fast guys in front of us with four tires, we knew we wouldn’t have a shot at winning,” Ford said of his tire strategy. “Here at Loudon we’ve historically done a lot of two-tire stops. Inside 120 or 130 laps it’s two tires and fuel. With these Cars of Tomorrow, you don’t get a lot of left-side wear, so it played into our hands today.”
Gordon could afford to be philosophical after minimizing the damage to his point lead while racing with substitute crew chief Jeff Meendering, who was replacing suspended Steve Letarte. “This car, you can’t overdrive it; the harder I tried to drive it, the slower I went,” he reflected. “I raced so hard with Martin (Truex) that we used up a lot of our stuff.” 
Truex took command as the race entered its decisive phase with a lap-205 restart. Until the final caution for debris 48 laps later, he looked like a solid bet to add another mile-track win to his Dover score a month ago. He insisted it wasn’t the four-tire strategy that beat him, but the set of tires itself.
“From the get-go I pushed real bad going into (turn) one and I was real loose off. It just stayed that way; I’m not sure why,” Truex said. “I think if I could have gotten out front, I would have been all right. But I would get right there and couldn’t get any closer and burned the front tires up trying to make it turn.”
Truex’s DEI teammate, Earnhardt, was a contender, but he was caught out by the unusual track conditions produced by fall-like temperatures with alternating sun and cloud as the afternoon waned.
“We didn’t adjust enough for the track change at the end. As the track cooled off, we were getting tight,” he said.
Bud Pole winner Dave Blaney led the first 30 laps, but his Toyota faded quickly after that and finished 29th.
There were only two notable incidents. Joe Nemechek hit the third-turn wall hard on lap 203 after his right-rear wheel departed, and David Stremme and Bobby Labonte tangled in restart traffic on lap 255.
Jeff Gordon maintains a lead of 156 points over Hamlin with nine races remaining before The Chase to the Nextel Cup begins at NHIS in September.