Gimpy Hamlin back in Victory Lane

FORT WORTH, Texas – Three weeks after winning another rain-postponed race, and since having surgery to repair the torn ACL in his left knee, Denny Hamlin gingerly climbed out of his car in Victory Lane at Texas Motor Speedway on Monday.

“I’m still not 100 percent by any means right now,” Hamlin said. “I feel like I’m 60 at best.”

That was still good enough to win this rain-delayed race.

Hamlin led the final 12 laps, the only time he was up front after starting the 334-lap race 29th. The final shootout came after a spectacular nine-car wreck took out polesitter Tony Stewart and dominating Jeff Gordon, and Hamlin held off points leader Jimmie Johnson for his 10th career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.

Two days after his Monday victory at Martinsville, Hamlin had surgery on the knee he injured playing basketball in January.

“I did this for September. I knew that if I did it now, come Chase time, if I’m lucky enough to be in one of those top 12 positions, it was going to make me more prepared to make a run for the championship at that time,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin, 11th in points after two wins in three races, said he is “still a good month away from getting back where I was.”

On the first lap after a restart with 18 laps left – following yellow-flag stops when Stewart was among the drivers who took only two tires and Gordon took four – they ended up three-wide with Gordon in the middle and Johnson on the inside coming out of Turn 4.

Stewart got loose in the pack and there was contact with Gordon, who had three-time Texas winner Carl Edwards coming up. Then things spun out of control along the frontstretch, though Johnson escaped unscathed.

“Definitely my fault,” Stewart said, taking the blame.

Gordon had led six times for a race-high 124 laps. He wound up 31st, one spot ahead of Stewart.

Johnson increased his points lead over Matt Kenseth to 108.

Kyle Busch finished third, ahead of older brother Kurt, who won at Texas in November.

Busch wins 5 in a row

Kyle Busch ended a long doubleheader by winning his fifth consecutive Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway, joining two-time series champion Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt Sr., as the only drivers to win five straight races in NASCAR’s second-tier series at the same track.

Busch led 153 of the 200 laps in the 300-mile race, that was originally scheduled Saturday.

Teammate Joey Logano, the polesitter, was second.

With another Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, winning the Sprint Cup race, it’s the first time a team has won both races on the same day.