July 28, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Hamlin leads Joe Gibbs Racing to podium sweep at Pocono

Denny Hamlin found redemption in the drama-filled Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

Hamlin motored by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones in Turn 3 with 14 laps remaining in the race.

Despite running low of fuel in the closing laps, two late-race cautions helped Hamlin coast to the finish for his third win of 2019 and his fifth at the Tricky Triangle.

“I knew with all those caution laps with about six or seven to go, it helped us out. I knew that – honestly I knew that I did everything I could to save fuel there once I got out front. If it was going to be not enough, it was going to be not enough, so proud of the whole team for putting me on a great strategy there, pit stops, everything. This was a perfect team effort this weekend. We really identified our weaknesses from the first race and we went to work as a driver and a team and I think we’re better for it.”

Jones, Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Daniel Hemric, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10.

Polesitter Harvick led the first 39 laps before pitting for fuel and turning the lead over to Kyle Busch, who won the stage. Harvick would go on to lead a race-high 62 laps. Busch relinquished the lead to pit on Lap 52 allowing Harvick to cycle back to the point. Busch restarted 10th for Stage 2 and caught Harvick on Lap 71.

Chase Elliott ignited the second caution when he slammed into the Turn 3 wall on Lap 84 after blowing a right front tire.

“It just popped, so I guess it wasn’t happy with something,” Elliott said. “It’s just unfortunate. It’s been a rough month, little over a month now. It’s just an unfortunate rough patch. Hopefully, we can get past it.”

Busch held a two-second lead over Larson before the caution and stayed on the track when other lead-lap cars chose to pit. Harvick and Hamlin lined up second and third when the race restarted on Lap 88.

Busch remained at the point when the fourth caution was called for rain on Lap 93. Harvick, Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Jones rounded out the top five when the race returned to green on Lap 96. Busch was forced to pit on Lap 98 and turned the lead over to Jimmie Johnson as Daniel Suarez slid into the No. 12 Ford of Blaney entering the Tunnel Turn. The contact caused Blaney to cut a tire and he spun into the Turn 3 wall to trigger Caution 4.

Johnson held on for his second-career stage win but finished the race 15th.

Harvick led the field to start Stage 3 on Lap 103 followed by Logano, Truex, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Jones, Alex Bowman, Larson and Kurt Busch. Kyle Busch restarted 15th. Blaney dropped to 28th, one lap down.

The fifth caution occurred 11 laps later when Ryan Preece slammed into the Turn 1 wall. Kyle Busch stayed out and regained the lead on Lap 116 with Jones, Hamlin, Truex, Suarez, Byron, Keselowski and Kurt Busch in tow. Jones assumed the lead on Lap 134 when Kyle Busch pitted. Ten laps later, Hamlin cruised by Jones who slowed to conserve fuel.

“It's always a challenge,” said Jones, who scored his third podium finish in as many races. “Probably my least part of racing at times is just having to save fuel. 

“Our opportunity to win when we were going green was to make it to the end. It would have been really tight. Those guys kind of gave up saving there. We were hoping it was going to stay green.”

Hamlin appeared to be sailing off to the win when Josh Bilicki came to a stop on the backstretch. NASCAR was forced to call a caution with six laps to decide the contest. When the race went green two laps later, Clint Bowyer pushed Kurt Busch into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. exiting Turn 1. Stenhouse gathered his car up and tagged Busch sending the No. 1 Chevy into the spin cycle and collected Michael McDowell in the process.

Once again, Hamlin went into fuel conservation mode as the race was forced into overtime. With a push from Larson, Hamlin shot out to the lead. Larson bobbled in Turn 1 and dropped to seventh before recovering for his fourth top-five finish of 2019.

“I knew I was going to be close to the wall, so I bailed out of the throttle to keep myself from hitting the wall and lost momentum,” Larson said. “I felt bad, but it was better than ending up torn up like the last time I was aggressive on a restart.

“It was a good day. It was a lot better car than I thought I was going to have, so it just goes to show how good our team is right now and how good our cars are. Any time you have a good run in a backup car, it’s satisfying.”

Hamlin led 32 laps and extended his advantage by .341-seconds over Jones at the line.

“The lapped traffic was really a benefit for me,” said Hamlin following his 34th career Cup win. “It kind of slowed up the 20 (Jones) there. I saw he was letting off early on entries and that allowed me to kind of dive bomb into the outside into the PJ1 in Turn 1.

“With the 19 (Truex Jr.), he had to go low to pass a lapped car. I decided to just take the middle lane there in (Turns) 3 and 4. Once again, I had an extra lane that wasn’t there in the past and was able to get around him. Once you get behind, it’s so hard to pass and get around guys, but we were able to get it done.”

Logano, who finished 13th, leads the standings by six points over Kyle Busch. Harvick, Hamlin and Truex, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Elliott and Bowman are locked into the Playoffs with five races remaining in the regular season.

Byron remains 12th in the standings after his second top-five finish of the year. He holds a 62-point cushion over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson, who is 17th in the standings and 12 points behind Bowyer and Ryan Newman who are tied for 15th.

“It was a tough day,” Byron said. “We didn’t really have a lot going our way. In the first stage and even the second stage, we were just kind of hanging on. We just found a way to kind of make it work. We had good strategy and just found a way to kind of settle in there in a decent spot, and save the right amount of fuel. We ran out of fuel coming across the line, so that was great. We saved the right amount of fuel and that was about it.”