Hamlin's Pocono mastery intact heading into Sunday

LONG POND, Pa. -- Denny Hamlin had people seeing visions of 2006 Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway as the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet driver was quickest in Happy Hour for Sunday's Pocono 500.

Last season, as a rookie, Hamlin won both Pocono races from the pole.

And Hamlin was at the top of the sheet for virtually the entire final hour of practice Saturday, swapping off with Gibbs teammate Tony Stewart, who led the first practice in his No. 20 Chevy.

The two practices were Chevrolet benefits, as the top three and seven of the top eight were Chevrolets in Practice 2 and the top seven in Happy Hour were Chevrolets.

Three's a crowd

Pocono's three turns make things unique at the track, but it's Turn 3 that may be crucial.

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Stewart's best lap was at 167.367 mph, barely ahead of two-time Pocono winner Jimmie Johnson's 167.348 mph effort.

As ambient temperatures rose, Hamlin's best lap was 165.770 mph, just ahead of Richard Childress Racing teammates Jeff Burton (165.706 mph) and Kevin Harvick (165.557). Stewart was sixth (164.856).

Hamlin ended his final on-track preparation, via a 10-lap run, with oil and water temperature gauge readings, a clean cut for a plug check and a stop on pit road for tire temperatures.

On his debrief he expressed a concern over Turn 1 with crew chief Mike Ford, but general satisfaction.

"It was tight in [Turn] 1, and the more we went the worse it got," Hamlin said on his radio. "I had to move around to find where it would work better, and to get away from the air off other cars.

"It was still good in [Turn] 2 and it's rolling Turn 3 kinda free. It's yawing in the middle [of 3] but it's pretty good off [the corner]. So I feel for sure we can gain the most time in 1 if we can get that right."

Hamlin later said he had a minimal concern over affecting his car's overall performance in search of one better corner -- but admitted the potential gain was worth the risk.

"We're trying to figure out the balance of where you're going to be able to pass guys," Hamlin said. "That's the corner you need to be good in, is the one leading up to that, so we're going to start transferring where we're good to where we need help -- because those are going to be the passing zones."

When he had no expectations last season, Hamlin led 151 of 200 laps in June. In the second event he led 83 laps at the 2.5-mile triangle.

"We think we're somewhere in between where we were last year," Hamlin said. "At the first race, we didn't know we were going to be that good until the race got started, where in the second race, we thought we were going to be pretty good.

"So we're somewhere in between right now -- but I definitely think we're a top-three car, for sure -- so we'll see how it stacks out."

Ford said the team's two 2006 wins came using different setups.

With practices of sixth, fifth and first, and then a qualifying position of second, Hamlin said this year's car was a comfortable piece.

"We're a little bit different with the setup, again, because the tire's different -- but that's normal," Hamlin said. "We're always on a different tire than what we were before, so we were expecting it.

"We got off a little bit different [on setups], but we're going to start going back toward the old direction."

Hamlin ended up running 46 laps between the two practices, which was a little higher than average. Johnson ran 50 laps, the most of any of the 43 scheduled starters.

Happy Hour was halted almost as soon as it began for oil that was dropped by Clint Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet, which left pit road but immediately returned to the garage area without completing a lap.

After nearly 15 minutes in the garage, Bowyer returned to the racetrack and on his first run, jumped up to 26th on the chart. After running 25 laps in Happy Hour, that's where he ended up.

The 45-minute Saturday morning practice was caution-free.

Greg Biffle, one of nine men traveling between Pocono and Lebanon, Tenn., this weekend for the Federated Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, sat out all but one lap of the initial practice as his team made wholesale chassis changes.

It took Biffle more than 14 minutes to take the track in Happy Hour, whereupon he made one lap and returned to the garage for another extended period. Biffle, who'll start 41st Sunday, ended up making 13 laps in Happy Hour, but ended up 41st on that time sheet.