Denny Hamlin hoping for another stellar Richmond performance
By Rea White - Associate Editor
Saturday, September 06, 2008
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RICHMOND, Va. – Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin thinks there is an advantage to racing on one's home track. The Chesterfield, Va., native is at least hoping that's the case as he prepares to race in the storm-delayed Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Hamlin is 11th in the standings and trying to wrap up a spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup field. He's now scheduled to compete in two races Sunday at the track he grew up near after both Friday's Nationwide Series and Saturday's Cup events were postponed because of the rain expected to accompany Tropical Storm Hanna.
"I think there’s an advantage," Hamlin said of racing on his home track. "I think when you go to a race track with a little bit more confidence then you always seem to run a little bit better. Of course there’s a little added pressure trying to perform in front of friends and family, but you don’t try any harder than you do on a normal week. Things just seem to work out a little better for you. I definitely think there is a little advantage.”
Hamlin ran well at Richmond in May, leading 381 laps before he suffered a tire failure in the closing laps. Teams have changed in their understanding of the new car since that initial race, so Hamlin and crew chief Mike Ford have brought a vastly different car to this race than the one they dominated with earlier.
"Typically the guys get faster in the fall versus the spring," Hamlin said. "Not necessarily in speed, but the cars handle better and [teams] definitely learn a lot of things. I definitely think that if we came back here with the same thing that we had we were going to get beat. We could probably run top-five and probably top-10 and it would be a safe bet, but we want to come here and win and we feel like in order to do that we needed to come here with a better car than what we had.
"We definitely had a dominant car, but things change so much and the weather is so much different than what it was here in the spring that I don’t think what we had would be perfect like it was last time. Already we took what we thought was good setup-wise in the spring, brought it here and we’ve changed it quite a bit. I think we’re just as good so we’ll see how it all irons out. It seems like every two weeks teams are coming up with newer, lighter race cars and better race cars than they’ve had in the past. May has been three or four months ago and I think a lot of guys would probably bypass us if we stick with what we had.”
Speaking before NASCAR opted to postpone the race, Hamlin said that he wouldn't mind the concept of racing Sunday.
He said that he thinks his team has a car capable of running well in the daytime, which could work out well since the race will now begin at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.
“I would love a day off," he said. "If it does go to day racing then I feel like we will be pretty strong during the day. At night this race track can go tight or go loose, it depends on your race car. I looked at lap times and not a lot of guys were slipping and sliding during the day and they kind of bank on it getting one way or the other at night. Our car was very strong during the day practice [Friday] so we’re more geared towards day than we are night, but we were like that here last year when we had to race on a Sunday and we felt like we had a pretty decent car and we were hoping for night racing and it ended up during the day and we said, ‘If the track was
cooler we would be right where we needed to be.’"
While he is focusing on making the Chase right now, Hamlin thinks that his team can pull that off. Once he's in the Chase, he believes that he can become a contender for the championship. After all, the way he sees it, others have shown the ability to adjust quickly to the car and find success in a hurry once they hit on something that works well. There's no reason his team cannot do the same.
"We see it in the sport - there’s always peaks and valleys and guys always seem to really peak either before the Chase or after the Chase - it’s hard to see someone really stay on top for an entire year simply because when someone goes out there and dominates it just forces everyone else to go to work," he said. "I think there’s nine other guys in the Chase that are thinking, ‘We have something to prove so let’s go test and let’s figure out what we have to do to beat these guys.’ Those are the guys, the dark horses, that are probably more dangerous than the guys that are expected to go out there and do good.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Denny Hamlin
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