Denny Hamlin is living proof that it pays to play video games.

Before arriving at Pocono this weekend, the only time Hamlin had seen the 2.5-mile layout was through his computer.

“The tracks that (rookies) aren’t supposed to do well on are driver’s racetracks,” Hamlin said on Saturday at the Busch Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. “To me if you’re a driver you can adapt to just about anything. I’m not doing anything that any good driver isn’t capable of doing himself.

“I liked racing Pocono on the computer. And once I did it in real life it took about two laps on the racetrack before I said, ‘This is a really good racetrack.’”

All that computer work paid dividends as Hamlin dramatically guided the FedEx Chevy to victory lane at the Pocono 500 on Sunday, the first win for him and the No. 11 FedEx team.

Hamlin took the race in dramatic fashion because at one point early on in the race Hamilin, cut a tire while leading and spun into the grass.

He managed to keep the car away from the wall and the damage to a minimum. Hamlin fell to 40th but climbed his way back to the front of the field and actually lead the most laps.

“This car was just on rails all day long,” Hamlin said on the TV victory lane interview. “We made quarter round (adjustments) every other stop at most. This whole FedEx Ground Chevrolet was awesome.

“My success has a lot to do with (crew chief) Mike Ford. Everybody knows his success with Bill Elliott. It just put an awesome car under me. It’s easy to do when you have a car as dominant ours. To come back from that blown tire … I thought our race was over. Man, this car was strong and you can’t hold us down.”

The win, which came in Hamlin’s 21st Cup start, wound up being a double-dose of good news for the rookie driver.

He moved up two spots in the Nextel Cup points standings from 11th to ninth. After the 26th race of the season, the top 10 cars in the points will advance to the Chase for the Nextel Cup, NASCAR’s version of the postseason.

Kurt Busch was second in the race, while Hamlin’s teammate, defending Nextel Cup champ Tony Stewart, was third.