LONG POND, Pa. – Denny Hamlin’s a rookie?

Does a rookie win the pole in his first visit to the odd Pocono Raceway layout?

Does a rookie bolt out to a 7 1/2-second lead through a quarter of the race?

Does a rookie rebound from what looked like a race-destroying blown tire?

This one does.

Hamlin, who lost a massive lead after a tire blowout shoved him from first to 40th, charged all the way back to win his first career Nextel Cup points race in yesterday’s Pocono 500.

“We’re trying to get in this Chase [for the Nextel Cup], and this is a good way to do it,” said Hamlin, who jumped from 11th to ninth in the points standings. “It’s unbelievable. My success has a lot to do with [crew chief] Mike Ford. To come back from that one tire, I can’t believe it. I pretty much thought our hopes went down the drain.”

No doubt, the blown tire looked disastrous. Hamlin led 49 of the first 50 laps, but on Lap 50 Hamlin’s left rear tire exploded on the “Long Pond Straightaway” between turns one and two. He spun, lost the lead and looked very much out of the race.

“It disrupted the car quite a bit,” said Hamlin, who became the first rookie to win at Pocono. “It just didn’t seem as fast as it was. The whole crew just kept adding little pieces to the car [during post-spin pit stops]. Each piece they added made it a little bit faster.”

Kurt Busch finished second, with Tony Stewart third.

The victory marked the second straight year a driver won in his first visit to Pocono. Last year, Carl Edwards accomplished the feat.

And just like last year when Edwards said he played a simulated video game to get situated with Pocono Raceway, Hamlin said a video game played a hand in the win.

“You don’t learn anything set-up wise, obviously,”” said Hamlin, who spent around nine hours on the computer playing the game. “But there’s a lot of track awareness. When you go to a race track that you’ve never been before, you gotta find let-off points. With the video game, visually I knew where my let-off points were. It helps in track awareness. I feel like it helped me.”

After the tire issue, it only took Hamlin 53 laps to return to the front of the pack. He led a race-high 83 laps and took the lead for good on Lap 177 after passing Greg Biffle.

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Jeff Gordon suffered a scary wreck with 10 laps to go. Coming out of Turn 1, Gordon’s No. 24 Chevy lost its brakes, spun and slammed hard into the wall. The entire driver’s side caved in, but Gordon climbed out, looking visibly shaken up.

The wreck, which sprayed dirt all over the track and damaged the safer barrier wall, caused the race to be red-flagged for just over 13 minutes. Gordon, who finished 34th, dropped to 11th in the points standings.

“I don’t know how, but, yes, I am,” Gordon said when asked if he was OK after the wreck.

“I’ve either got a really hard head or those guys at Hendrick Motorsports just build and awesome race car because that was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever taken.”