5-4-10 —     Denny Hamlin took advantage of a 9 car pileup with 17 laps to go to win

Monday's rain-postponed Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

    "I never doubted the outcome," said Hamlin. "We were in this for the

long runs and the team did a great job there at the end."

    Hamlin's win was the second one in the last three races, both victories

coming in races that were postponed by rain before being run on the first

day of the week.

    Hamlin never led until that final run, set up after a spectacular

nine-car crash involving Jeff Gordon who had led 124 laps, and pole-sitter

Tony Stewart.

    After a brief red flag period while officials cleaned debris from the

track, racing resumed with 13 laps to go.

    Hamlin passed Jeff Burton the leader with 11 to go. After a brief battle

with Kyle Busch, Hamlin pulled away and beat Jimmie Johnson to the finish

line by about 100 feet.

    The big crash came on lap 317 of the 334-lap race after Tony Stewart got

loose coming out of turn two. He slowed and was bumped from the rear by Carl

Edwards. The left front of Stewart's No. 14 bumped into the rear of the No.

24 driven by Jeff Gordon.

    "It was my fault," said Stewart. "I got up into the turn and got

squirrely and came down. It wasn't Jeff's (Gordon) fault, it was mine."

    Stewart finished 32nd and dropped from 9th to 14th in points.

    Jeff Gordon led 124 laps, the most of any driver and had the dominant

car, but wound up with a DNF.

    "When you get a late caution every lap counts," said Gordon. "I saw Tony

get loose and I tried to get under him, but we got together."

    Gordon finished 31st and remains fourth in points.

    The other cars that were involved in the lap 317 crash included Joey

Logano, Juan Montoya, A J Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, and

Paul Menard.

    Top-10 finishers: 1. Hamlin, 2. Johnson, 3. Kyle Busch, 4. Kurt Busch,

5. Kasey Kahne, 6. Mark Martin, 7. Kevin Harvick, 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 9.

Martin Truex, 10. Greg Biffle

    Top-12 Chase contenders after 8 of 36: 1. Johnson-1248, 2. Kenseth-1140,

3. Biffle-1120, 4. Harvick-1107, 5. J. Gordon-1028, 6. Kyle Busch-1020, 7.

Earnhardt-1013, 8. Burton-1005, 9. Kurt Busch-999, 10. Martin-994, 11.

Hamlin-973, 12. Edwards-942

    Kasey Kahne will be leaving Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of this

season, for Hendrick Motorsports, but exactly which car he will be driving

is yet to be determined, as Hendrick already has four teams, the maximum

allowed by NASCAR.

    Stewart-Haas Racing‹which features drivers Tony Stewart and Ryan

Newman‹gets chassis and engines from Hendrick and could be a possibility for

Kahne, who currently drives for Richard Petty Motorsports.

    "If this opportunity was going to happen, I knew having some unanswered

questions would be part of the scenario at this stage," Kahne said in a news

release. "Hendrick Motorsports has a commitment to Mark Martin that they

want to fulfill, and that's important. It's part of what attracts me to the

team."