Vindication

Before Sunday's race, Denny Hamlin felt that he was cursed. He had terrible luck at Daytona, got caught a lap down in Vegas, and had a great car at Bristol and was in position to win until something happened with the fuel pickup.

But crew chief Mike Ford played their strategy perfectly, and the almost-an-afterthought third driver in the Joe Gibbs stable picked up his first win of the year at a track that Hamlin would give almost anything to win about.

For those of you keeping score at home, it's Gibbs 2, Hendrick 0. But please, don't read too much into that. The Hendrick cars have been as good as the Gibbs and Childress cars this year, they just don't have the wins to show for it.

Hendrick did what Gibbs did two weeks ago at Bristol and dominated the majority of the race, but a Hendrick car just didn't lead the last lap. But the four Hendrick cars did finish in the top 10; inevitably leading to the "Hendrick is back! Sorta" sidebars in newspapers around the country.

Don't worry. This is going to be a three or four team chase for the title this year, and it promises to be exceptional.

(photo from AP/Mark Humphrey and thatsracin.com)