LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Another week, another setback for Denny Hamlin.
A fuel pump problem that sent Hamlin to the garage two laps in saddled the No. 11 Toyota the rest of the afternoon at the Pocono 500 on Sunday. He also went to the garage 13 laps in, apparently for the same issue.
Hamlin finished 38th in the 43-car field, 22 laps off the lead lap. He tumbled from seventh to 12th in the points standings, clinging to a one-point advantage over 13th-place Mark Martin.
The top 12 drivers make the season-end Chase for the championship.
The previous week at Dover, Hamlin, in second at the time, blew a right-front tire and slammed hard into the wall just past the halfway point of that race. The bad finish sent him from fifth to seventh in points.
The fuel pump issue Sunday spoiled what has otherwise been a nice run for the 28-year-old Hamlin at Pocono, where he has five top-10 finishes in six races, including two wins.
IN THE PITS: Other top drivers had a tough day on pit road at the Tricky Triangle, though it didn't set them back too much in the points race.
Jimmie Johnson started the painful pit parade on lap 104 when he was penalized for being on pit road when a yellow flag flew. The red light was on at the entrance for pit road — meaning it was closed — when Johnson arrived at his stall, so he was sent to the back on the restart.
His No. 48 Chevrolet slipped from third to seventh on the final lap after running out of fuel on the third turn.
"It was funny trying and wondering who was going to go, and when," said Johnson, who stayed third in the points standings.
Ryan Newman was penalized for speeding on pit road twice.
Newman was also hampered by a bad spark plug that forced him to pit six times over a span of two cautions at mid-race.
Yet he still finished fifth to extend a streak of top-10 finishes to six. Newman moved up one spot in the points race to fourth, past Kurt Busch.
"It felt like I was driving an old car and troubleshooting it at the same time," Newman said about his spark plug issue. "A good run for our guys to be able to fight back through that."
Busch had a water pump issue with his No. 2 Dodge that forced him to miss 17 laps before returning on lap 148.
SPARK PLUGS: Rookie Dexter Bean debuted on the Sprint Cup circuit at Pocono with a mistake heading into the pits on lap 46 after running over the "commitment cone" that marks the boundary to pit road. He braked hard, sending puffs of white smoke into the air. ... Car owner Richard Childress was recently elected to the board of directors for the National Rifle Association. ... Marcos Ambrose finished sixth for his second top-10 finish of the season. He finished fourth at Talladega.
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