Monday

WIX Filters Claims 10th Win of 2009 Season While Hamlin Ends Victory Drought at Pocono

LapLeader- WIX Filters

Hamlin flashed by Clint Bowyer at the entrance to Turn 2 on lap 191 of the 200-lap race and held off Juan Pablo Montoya down the stretch to win. He crossed the finish line .869 seconds ahead of Montoya. Hamlin led six times for race-high 91 laps and earned WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors for the third time this season.

The victory was emotional for Hamlin and his team. The driver lost his grandmother, Thelma Clark just days before the race and tire specialist Patrick Mullen lost his mother only a few weeks ago.

“We lost a couple of people in our family,” Hamlin said. after the race. “I was definitely driving aggressively out there trying to do everything I could to get a win for them but it’s emotional. We had a dominant car with two heavy souls in our race car today.”

Hamlin averaged 126.403 mph in a race that took three hours, 57 minutes and 22 seconds to complete. There were 11 lead changes among 11 drivers in a race that was slowed by 10 cautions for 39 laps.

“Clean air meant so much,” Hamlin said. “It was seconds of a difference between first and 10th. We just had a great car at the end. It seemed like our car liked four tires and once we put them back on we were able to get to the front but before that it was a struggle for us. On two tires it seemed like we were no better than anyone else.

“We did a great job on pit road. Those guys picked me up and just got ahead of the guys I needed to get past on the last run and we drove it to the front from there.”

During a sequence of pit stops under caution on lap 168, Hamlin was shuffled outside the top-10 when several teams used a variety to pit strategies to gain precious track position. Hamlin restarted 14th when the green flag waved on lap 170 and he began his march through the field.

Four laps later he and David Reutimann made contact off Turn 3, which sent Reutimann for a spin that also collected Marcos Ambrose.

“With Reutimann, I got to him coming off Turn 1,” Hamlin said. “I drove into Turn 2, got to him, nudged him actually in the middle of the corner. I let go of him. He pulled away about a car length but then he slammed on the brakes to let me know he was upset.

“In Turn 3 I got to him again. He got really loose off [three]. When I got to him and pushed him I was hoping he was just going to come off the corner, straighten up, I was going to push him down the straightaway. Instead I kept my throttle on him and when I did I spun him into his teammate. It was a lot of emotion. I’m racing for a win on a particular weekend where it means more than any other weekend.”

Hamlin is fifth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings, a gain of one position. He trails fourth-place Kurt Busch by 38 points and leads sixth-place Carl Edwards by 48.

“This is what we didn’t get to show last week at the Brickyard and this is what we didn’t get to show the first lap here in the summer race in June,” Hamlin said. “I think our race team has been really good the last couple months. I feel like we’re the best car other than the Hendrick cars. We’ve been slowly but surely been working on it in the race shop and on pit road and we’ve just been getting there slowly but surely and today was a good day for us.”

Since 1939, WIX® Filters, a member of the Affinia Group family of brands, has been an innovator in filtration products. WIX designs, manufactures and distributes products for automotive, diesel, agricultural, industrial and specialty filter markets. Its product line includes oil, air, cabin interior, fuel, coolant, transmission and hydraulic filters for automobiles, trucks and off-road equipment. WIX, a member of the Affinia family of brands, is the number one filter in NASCAR and an exclusive NASCAR Performance Product. Its NASCAR relationship also includes the WIX Filters Lap Leader Award, which recognizes the drivers leading the most laps in each race. For more information, visit www.wixfilters.com.

- Camp & Associates, Inc., for WIX Filters, Press Release