Denny Hamlin scored his well overdue first victory of the 2007 Nextel Cup season thanks to an inspired two-tyre pitstop late in the going of Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway.
The driver of the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet vaulted from fifth to first with less than 50 laps to go after his Mike Ford led crew elected to take right hand side tyres only on the final round of yellow flag pitstops and even though many of his closest rivals took four fresh tyres, Hamlin was able to keep them all at bay.
When the final green flag run to the chequered flag began on lap 262 of 300 Martin Truex Jr looked the man most likely to usurp Hamlin after he dominated the previous green flag run in the #1 DEI Chevrolet. However Truex Jr managed to knock his front fender ever so slightly in the build-up to the restart, which adversely affected the handling of his car.
After running roughly half a dozen car lengths behind Hamlin for 20 laps after the restart Truex Jr came under increasing pressure from Jeff Gordon. Gordon, who had led nearly 40 laps in the early stages of the race finally passed Truex Jr with seven laps to go and set about making a final charge on Hamlin.
As the white flag waved Gordon was just a single car length behind Hamlin and as the two slowed to enter turn three on the flat one-mile oval Gordon came within inches of tapping Hamlin's rear bumper. However Gordon backed off to try and get a run out of turn four and even though Hamlin slapped the outside wall coming off the final corner he had enough momentum to carry him across the line first.
Behind Gordon Truex Jr took third at his ‘home' track with his DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr a close fourth in a race that he led for more than 60 laps before he had to give way to Truex Jr at two-thirds distance.
![Denny Hamlin. [Pic Credit Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/192826.jpg)
