Hamlin uses emotions to propel him to Pocono win

LONG POND, Pa. -- On a day when his emotions were battered as wildly as a palm tree in a hurricane, Denny Hamlin was able to harness them into a pin-point focus and eliminated some of the concerns that perhaps he had lost the ability to put a dominant finish on a dominant performance.

Confidence booster

Denny Hamlin passed Clint Bowyer with 10 laps to go and then held off Juan Montoya for his first win of the year and the third of his career at Pocono.

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• Final Laps: Pocono
• Victory Lane: Pocono
• Press Pass: D. Hamlin

Hamlin removed all doubt Monday by racing his way back into the lead with a pass of Clint Bowyer on Lap 191, then pulled away from Juan Montoya to snap a 50-race winless streak by winning the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 on a picture-perfect, sunshiny day at Pocono Raceway.

Even though he exuded confidence earlier in the week when asked about how he might run, Hamlin's chances of winning seemed slim. One week ago, his biggest fan -- Thelma Clark, his 91-year-old grandmother -- died.

In the past two seasons, he had had dominating runs at Richmond, Bristol and Martinsville, only to be thwarted by mechanical issues or pit problems. And after winning the first two times he set foot at the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped track in the Pocono Mountains, Hamlin seemed to have lost the magic here, running a distant 38th in June after suffering a fuel pump failure early in the race.

Hamlin might not have admitted at the time, but he was fighting a confidence problem.

"Seventy percent of it was because of the family issues and what not," Hamlin said. "And the other 30 was because we had tried so hard over the last year and a half and been so close so many times. It's more of a relief that we could finally do it, and that I could do it. I found myself over the last few months starting to think, 'Well, I'm only racing for second when I show up.' And that's no way to be. This puts the confidence back in me. I know I can come from the middle of the pack with 30 [laps] to go and win a race." (Continued)