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Hamlin knows he's still in a race for a spot in the Chase
By SceneDaily Staff
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Jerry Markland
Getty Images
Coming off a third-place finish in last Saturday night’s Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin is in better position to make the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint than he had been before the weekend.
But coming into Sunday night's Pepsi 400 at Auto Club Speedway, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver isn’t taking a berth in the championship-determining field for granted.
Eleventh in the standings but just 45 points ahead of 12th-place Clint Bowyer and 57 ahead of 13th-place David Ragan, Hamlin could easily fall out of the 12-driver Chase group with a bad finish Sunday.
That would force Hamlin to come from behind to make NASCAR’s playoff in the final race of the regular season set for Sept. 6 at Richmond International Raceway.
Though Hamlin has a history of success at that track – he led all but one of the first 382 laps there in May before a flat tire ruined his night – Hamlin isn’t guaranteed an equally strong run this time.
He wants to enter Richmond already among the top 12. And the only way to ensure that is a solid finish at California.
“The edge isn't off but it felt good to go out there and have a good race - especially at Bristol where we've had trouble finishing and on the heels of a tough race at Michigan,” said Hamlin, in reference to the Aug. 17 Michigan race in which a blown engine forced him to retire early from the event with a 39th-place finish.
“The other teams we are racing for the top-12 all fared well [at Bristol] so it doesn't change our outlook at all. We need to go to California and put together another really strong race. California is another opportunity to gain points but we are prepared to go to Richmond with everything on the line.”
In five starts at California, Hamlin has just one top-10 finish – a sixth in the fall 2006 event. Richmond has been another story, however, as the native of nearby Chesterfield, Va., has three top-six finishes and two poles in five starts at the .75-mile facility.
“Hopefully we'll be in good shape by then but I can't think of a better track to go to knowing we have to put up a good performance,” Hamlin said. “For this FedEx team, it seems like we run well one week, then struggle the next and that up and down has kept us right on the edge. We need to put some consistent finishes together because that up and down is a tough way through to go through a season - or in our case the second half of the season. The way we see it, the good runs reflect how good we are, and that makes the bad runs that much harder to take and increases our frustration even more.
“The Chase is so tight that there really isn't room for error anymore - but the Chase also rewards consistency and gives any team that gets on a roll the chance to make some noise. We feel like we can be that team if we get back to running as well as we know we can."
Mentioned Drivers: Denny Hamlin
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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