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Denny Hamlin took the lead away from Jeff Burton on a restart with 12 laps to go, held off a challenge from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch with 11 laps to go and then held off Jimmie Johnson to win the rain-delayed Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Hamlin, who had knee surgery following his victory at Martinsville on March 29, beat charging Johnson to the finish line by about .15 seconds.

Then he and the knee that was cut open by surgeons just 19 days before, crawled out of the car and Hamlin said, “We definitely didn’t give up. Just a great day for our race team.”

Hamlin led just  the final 11 laps.

Kyle Busch was third and Kurt Busch fourth. Kasey Kahne was fifth and Mark Martin sixth.

Jeff Gordon appeared to be headed for his first victory since winning at TMS a year ago as he had a 2.5-second lead over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson with 25 laps to go.

But a lap later, the engine of David Reutimann’s car exploded, bringing out a caution.

On the ensuing pit stop, Gordon took four tires and came out of the pits with seven cars which took two tires in front of him.

One lap after the restart, which came with 18 laps to go, the big wreck struck. Right in the middle was Gordon. He was clipped from behind by Tony Stewart, who was clipped first by Carl Edwards.

“I started it,” Stewart said. “Definitely my fault.”

Also involved in the wreck were Juan Pablo Montoya, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano and Paul Menard. The crash brought out the red flag.

Gordon had led 124 laps before the crash.

“Man, what a race car we had,” Gordon said. “That’s what I’m most bummed out about.”

The thing Gordon may be second most bummed out about was his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Johnson.

With about 95 laps to go, they began racing each other hard for the lead. Johnson bumped Gordon once from behind and then appeared to drive into the right side of Gordon.

The side contact dented Johnson’s fender and that eventually flattened his front left tire. It certainly angered Gordon.

“He ran into the back of me for no reason,” Gordon said. “I guess he thought I was aggressive. Then he just drove into my door.”

“Just racin’ hard,” Chad Knauss, Johnson’s crew chief said.

“I’m pretty disappointed how he was racing me today,” Johnson said of Gordon.

But despite it all, Johnson nearly won the race. He said the nose of his car was dragging after the restart because the red flag period had lowered his tire pressure. After the pressures came back up, Johnson made the finish highly exciting.

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