Sometimes a driver just clicks with a certain track and it leaves many to wonder how it came to be. That was the case in June 2006 when a young rookie showed up at Pocono Raceway for the first time and dominated the NASCAR Sprint Cup weekend

Denny Hamlin had never seen the Pocono Raceway until arriving in the Pennsylvania hills with his Joe Gibbs Racing team that summer day in 2006. The Virginia native had proven he had a heavy right foot and when qualifying for the Pocono 500 had concluded it was car No. 11 at the top of the speed chart with a lap at 169.638 mph. Kurt Busch lined up second on the starting grid followed by Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton.

Hamlin quickly grabbed the lead at the drop of the green with Scott Riggs and Casey Mears bringing out the yellow flag on lap one. Hamlin remained out front when the race resumed and held a six-second advantage when he had a tire go down on lap 51, damaging his left rear fender.

Displaying patience and the maturity of a veteran, Hamlin kept his cool and returned to the front of the pack, passing Greg Biffle for the lead with 37 laps to go.

The red flag came out when Jeff Gordon hit the wall hard in turn one with less than 10 laps left. Gordon exited the No. 24 under his own power but was done for the day.

Hamlin drove away on the restart and held on the final five laps to win his first Sprint Cup race. Kurt Busch finished second with Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top-five.

The rookie from Virginia continued his dominance of the Tricky Triangle when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returned in July. Hamlin once again swept the weekend by winning from the pole.

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