By Ryan - Posted on June 16, 2010

Superior car this season? Check. Handful of wins? Check. Within arm’s reach of the lead in points. Check again. Hamlin’s dominant win at Michigan – one in which he consistently pulled away from the field – has put him in a place anyone would love to be. Forty-seven points out of the Sprint Cup points lead.

In the waning laps, Kasey Kahne tried to stay within shouting distance of Hamlin, but that is about all he could manage. Following a late-race (lap 182) caution for debris, Kahne actually restarted ahead of Hamlin. This lasted for all of about 3 laps, before Hamlin shot past him and drove away.

Kahne acknowledged that Hamlin had a superior car again today. "I didn't like watching him drive away from me, but I wasn't surprised when he did," said Kahne. I thought we had a really good car ... the 11 was just a touch better."

Kurt Busch, who led 60 laps early in the race, finished third, Jeff Gordon finished fourth, and Tony Stewart finished fifth, good enough to move him from “outside looking in” in the point standings to 11th place. The top 10 was rounded out by Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (his first top-ten finish in seven races), Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, and Joey Logano.

This may be the year that someone is able to dethrone Jimmie Johnson; if that is the case, it may be Hamlin. He is certainly making an amazing run. He has won five of the last ten races, and on all kinds of tracks. He has already topped his season high in wins, with 21 races yet to go. And, unfortunately for the other 42 drivers, Hamlin is gaining confidence each week.

"It seems like I used to go into every season thinking, 'We ought to get a couple wins, Martinsville, Pocono,"' Hamlin said. "Now it's just show up and, hey, we can win. That to me is just a feeling I don't think we've ever had before." Hamlin was even feeling good enough to joke about banging up his car last week in the post-race celebration. He said that this week, “there were specific instructions not to wreck”.

In fact, all of Joe Gibbs Racing is confident. And why shouldn’t they be? One of the Gibbs cars has won each of the last 10 races. They have apparently figured out the spoiler on the 2010 car better than the other teams. That does not bode well for everyone else, as the series is halfway to “the Chase”.