Hamlin scores his first win of 2011

Denny Hamlin held off Matt Kenseth to claim his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory of the season at Michigan on Sunday.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver claimed the lead in the final round of pit stops under the last caution of the day, which waved nine laps from the end when Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall due to a right-front tire blowing. At that point, a number of drivers were marginal on their fuel mileage and, as the pits opened, the leaders went for a splash of fuel and two tires.

Hamlin's team came out on top from the battle in the pits, handing the lead to their driver for the first time during the race. Track position being key all afternoon, Hamlin had a fight in his hands to keep himself up front on the final restart when the race resumed for the last five laps, Kenseth restarting alongside him on the front row.

When the green flag waved, Kenseth got wheelspin allowing Hamlin to jump ahead. However, the battle was still on as the Roush racer put the pressure back on the leader, Kenseth trying different lines to Hamlin's on the last two laps in an effort to regain the lead that had been his for 16 laps before that. However, last year's Cup runner up did not put a foot wrong and despite Kenseth's best efforts, which almost made him spin out of the final turn, Hamlin remained up front to take his first win since Texas in November 2010.

"I think everyone knows that we've been strong and today we didn't look as strong as what we normally do here, but we got it working there at the end," said Hamlin, whose result vaulted him up to the top 10 in the points after he had been down in 23rd seven weeks ago.

"We made a magic adjustment and the car just took off. This is the point in the season where we really need to start hitting our stride and hopefully we've got another good 10 weeks before the Chase starts."

Kenseth was part of a strong challenge from the Roush Fords, which led more than half the race's distance between them, first with Greg Biffle and later with Carl Edwards who emerged up front from the penultimate restart. Edwards was right behind Kenseth on the last green flag and was somewhat hampered by his teammate's poor getaway.

"I just couldn't quite get Denny," admitted Kenseth. "After restarts, we were kind of slow and tight in the middle which isn't a good thing to be in a short shoot-out. We had a great car in the long run, though. I tried what I could to get around him but I slipped on the restart. I just needed more laps to get it going."

Following a controversial start to its weekend, Joe Gibbs Racing rounded out a great day with Kyle Busch taking third place at the flag from 24th on the grid. Busch was Roush's main opponent of the day, leading 60 laps and being a contender for victory until his final stop placed him sixth with just a handful of laps remaining. He was able to jump up to third on the final restart but could not quite get in the mix with Kenseth and his teammate Hamlin in the end. However, Joe Gibbs Racing is waiting to hear from NASCAR about what punishment it will receive for fitting the engines of its three cars with oil pans that had not been previously approved by officials. The parts were removed before the first practice of the weekend.

"The reality of it is it was our fault for not bringing it to them and laying it out. It's a good lesson learned," said JD Gibbs. "Also having those communications ahead of time. We want to be in this sport, we want to be here with integrity and do things the right way. We made mistakes in the past as a team and I'm sure we'll make mistakes in the future... It's a wake-up call for us to make sure we do a better job before bringing parts to the track."

Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard finished fourth, his best result of the season, beating points leader Carl Edwards. Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart were sixth and seventh, while RCR's Bowyer, Hendrick's Mark Martin and Red Bull's Brian Vickers rounded out the top 10.

Besides Martin's solid finish it was not the best of days for Hendrick Motorsports as Jimmie Johnson spun early on and then had a long stop while mechanics tried to replace a broken front sway bar on his car. Then Earnhardt hit the wall after his right-front tire blew following previous contact with the wall while battling with team-mate Martin. Jeff Gordon was only 17th this time after his victory at Pocono last weekend.

Penske's Kurt Busch was 11th after starting from pole for the third week in a row.