LONG POND – Unpopular? Maybe.

Undisputed? Absolutely.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin drove to a milestone win in front of a sell out crowd in full throat at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

The driver, who snapped a tie with Jeff Gordon for the most wins at “The Tricky Triangle” with his seventh victory, also notched the 50th win of his career and the 600th win in NASCAR for Toyota.

Hamlin’s win in the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint,com 400 wasn’t without controversy. Hard racing between Hamlin and Kyle Larson off a restart with seven laps to go coming through Turn 1 resulted in Larson, who was the leader, scraping the outside wall and losing his track position.

Hamlin had restarted behind Larson and drove underneath him after helping the Hendrick Motorsports driver clear Martin Truex Jr. on the inside going into the first turn. Larson fought to hold on to after bouncing off the wall coming out of the first turn after the pair raced side-by-side, with Larson pulling down the track before Hamlin eventually cleared him out of the first turn.

But a subsequent caution for Justin Haley’s crash shortly after in the Tunnel Turn brought the field back to together.

Under the yellow flag, Larson drove up to Hamlin and ran him up the track to show his displeasure, Hamlin didn’t hit the wall, but Larson managed to bump the left side of his car.

Another restart came with three laps to go, with Hamlin and JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr. on the front row.

Ryan Preece spun with two laps to go, and the race initially stayed green as Hamlin, who had a clean restart, took the white flag for the final lap.

Preece struggled to get his car restarted, and the caution eventually cane out with Hamlin still out front. With the white flag already displayed, the caution ended the race as the next flag displayed, sealing the win for Hamlin.

Behind Hamlin was Tyler Reddick, followed by Truex, Kevin Harvick and Ty Gibbs to round out the top five.

Hamlin’s win was met with a chorus of boos when he got out of the car on the frontstretch.

“I love it. I love it,” Hamlin said of the boos. “They can boo my rock out here in a few years.”

Hamlin, who playfully counted to seven to highlight his successes at Pocono, seems likely to join some of the all-time greats with a commemorative rock placed outside the speedway when his career is over.

The victory also came at the site of Hamlin’s first career win in 2006, and ties him for 13th on the all-time wins list with Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson.

A spin by Hendrick Motorsports driver and Larson teammate Alex Bowman, who was racing with Hamlin for third, coming out of Turn 3 setup another late-race restart.

It appeared Hamlin made contact with Bowman, but replays showed Hamlin nosed up to the back of Bowman without making contact.

“Both guys wrecked themselves,” Hamlin said. “There was a lane ... he (Larson) missed the corner first, and evidently he didn’t have his right-side tires clean, and when he gassed up, he kept going again. You have an option in those positions, and it’s either hold it wide open and hit the fence, or lift and race it out, Those are choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them. Didn’t touch them.”

Larson faded to a 20th-place finish.

“It is what it is,” Larson said. “Yeah we’re friends. Yes this makes things awkward. But whatever. He’s always right. All the buddies know, Denny’s always right, so I’m sure he was in the right there as well. It is what it is. We’re not going to let it tarnish our friendship on track. But I am pissed. And I feel like I should be pissed.”

Larson believed Hamlin made contact with him through Turn 1, which TV replays seemed to indicate.

“I think at this point I have to,” Larson added of if he will race Hamlin differently moving forward. “I’ve never had to apologize to him about anything, anything I’ve done to him on the racetrack. I can count four or five times he’s had to reach out to me, ‘Oh man, sorry I put you in a bad spot there.’ So eventually, like he says, you have to start racing people a certain way to get the respect back. He pulled the same move on Ross (Chastain) last year, which Ross probably deserved it with all the stuff he’s done to Denny in his career. Again, I haven’t done that to Denny. I don’t think I deserve to be run into before I ever got to the wall. It just is what it is. I’m going to go race a sprint car on Tuesday night, I’m going to forget about it here in a few hours and that’s the best medicine for a tough result. Look forward to getting in the 57 sprint car Tuesday at Grandview (in Pennsylvania) and move on to Richmond.”

Larson spun after a restart after contact from Christopher Bell on Lap 46 in Turn 1 but recovered to win the second stage.

Another wreck on a restart caught up Joey Logano and later playoff bubble driver Daniel Suarez. Logano, who won the first stage, restarted in middle of pack after pitting at the end of the first stage.

Both Logano and Suarez, who doesn’t have a win and entered the race 17th in points and one spot out of the playoff standings, were eventually forced to retire, finishing 35th and 36th.

Pole sitter William Byron led a race-high 60 laps, dominating early, but finished 14th.

Truex, a two-time Pocono winner who leads the regular season points with 667 over Byron (650), led 20 laps.