LOUDON, N.H. – Denny Hamlin said he felt he had some “kids riding along with me all day” during Sunday’s LENOX Industrial Tools 300 Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Hamlin had visited Children’s Hospital in Boston Thursday and was presented with a special helmet designed by 13-year-old patient Moira Welch and that was the helmet he was wearing when he held off Jeff Gordon by less than a car length to take the checkered flag.

He had delivered a donation of $25,000 to the hospital on behalf of his sponsor, FedEx, as part of the sponsor’s “Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet” charity program.

He delivered his win by taking just two right-side tires with 45 laps to go in order to gain track position, moving up from fourth to first.

Gordon and Martin Truex Jr, who finished second and third, changed all four tires.

“I’m sure the kids were as excited as I was at the end,” said Hamlin,, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth and rounding out the top 10 were Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Green, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman.

Dave Blaney, who claimed the first-ever pole for Toyota, led the first 30 laps but finished 29th.

“Our setup died in the long run. The car got so tight,” said Blaney.

Hamlin credited crew chief Mike Ford for making the two-tire call “that definitely got us the win.”

“We were a top-four car for the most part but we struggled to get around guys. If we could get clean air, I knew we’d be in good shape,” said Hamlin. “Once we did, our car took off.”

It was a Car of Tomorrow race and Ford explained that “there isn’t a lot of tire wear on the left side” during a COT race so he made the two-tire call.

“The only shot we had to win was to get track position and two tires had worked for us earlier. So we kind of made an oath that anything under 120 laps to go, we were going to do two,” said Ford.

Hamlin joked that he drove like a “wuss over those last few laps trying not to make a mistake. Those guys with fresh tires and Martin [Truex Jr.] held them off just long enough to get the win.”

He also credited his pit crew for producing a flawless two-tire stop that supplied him with the lead.

“This is a big deal that we won this one on pit road. This is redemption for these guys. They did a great job on pit road all day,” said Hamlin, referring to pit miscues in earlier races that cost them wins.

Gordon may have been able to catch Hamlin but it took him from lap 258 to 293 to maneuver around Truex into second place.

“I raced so hard with Martin that we used up a lot of our stuff,” conceded Gordon. “It took me a couple of laps once I got in front of him to get readjusted and back in my rhythm. We were running Denny down and he was doing a great job. At the end, those last two laps, he started watching his mirror and I thought we had a shot at him.”

Gordon was able to get his fender inside Hamlin on the last lap but Hamlin hugged the inside groove and forced Gordon to the outside. Hamlin wobbled sideways a little but Gordon said when Hamlin got loose, “so did I.

“I was just trying to get underneath him and get a drag race off there and get some momentum but it wasn’t able to happen,” said Gordon.

Hamlin had qualified 11th.

It was his first win of the season and first in 33 races dating back to last season.

Hamlin entered the race second in points to Gordon and he and Ford felt they had a comfortable enough position in the top 12 for the Chase [for the Nextel Cup championship] that they could gamble for the win.

“We knew we] could take an aggressive position and try to get some points for the Chase,” said Ford.

Race winners receive 10 bonus points to put toward their total when they recalibrate the points for the Chase after the 26 races.

Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Johnson each have four wins.

Former Busch North [now East] driver Truex said his car was “great until the last set of tires. That set was a little off for us. I thought I would be able to get by [Hamlin] but my car just wouldn’t go like it had for some reason.”

Truex said it “felt good” to get a fourth top three finish in five races.

“We didn’t run so good here last year,” said Truex who added that his familiarity with the track from his days in the Busch North series was helpful.

“It always helps you to know the feel that you need to find to go fast,” said Truex. “We always ran well here in the Busch cars back in the day.”

Earnhardt Jr., Truex’s Dale Earnhardt Incorporated teammate, said his car was good for most of the race.

“I just didn’t ask for enough changes as the track cooled off. We got tight at the end as the weather cooled off. I was really good at the start of the race,” said Earnhardt Jr., who led the most laps (64).

Green’s sixth-place finish was his third sixth of the season but only his first since the Phoenix race nine races ago.

“We had a good enough car to run in the top five,” said Green. “We took two tires on the last stop. That was the way to go for us. That’s the best the car worked all day.”

Carl Edwards, whose Ford was adorned with a Boston Red Sox paint scheme as a result of the Roush-Fenway Group partnership, was leading when he pitted on lap 191 only to have his car fall off the jack when they were trying to change his tires..

The result was a 47.6-second pit stop that left him a lap down in 26th place.

He eventually got his lap back and salvaged a 13th place finish.

“The good news is that we had an awesome car but the bad news was it fell off the jack,” said Edwards. “Everybody kept their composure. We finished 13th but the car was a race winner.”

Roush-Fenway teammate Kenseth overcame a 30th-place start to finish ninth.

Sterling Marlin, whose crew chief is Biddeford’s Slugger Labbe, finished 24th after starting 41st.