Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 5 - Denny Hamlin
Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin finished the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season with a career-high four victories. // David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
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For the fourth consecutive season, Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin made NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup, and he won a career-high four races over the course of the year.
Hamlin’s 2009 campaign also marked the first time the Virginia native won at his hometown track as he took the checkered flag at Richmond International Raceway in September.
During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 35 in 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points. Here’s how Hamlin’s season unfolded:
By the numbers: Hamlin finished fifth in the series standings by posting four victories, 15 top-five and 20 top-10 finishes in 36 starts. He also earned $7,208,940 in purses.
Season highlights: Snapping a 50-race winless skid with an August victory at Pocono and winning four times in 2009 were highlights for Hamlin, along with top-five finishes in the final three races of the season, including a victory in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Key setbacks: Three DNFs during the Chase ruined any chance Hamlin might have had of collecting his first Cup championship in 2009. After moving up in the standings with a victory in the fall race at Martinsville, Hamlin blew an engine the following week at Talladega Superspeedway and dropped to 11th in points and had to claw his way back up the standings after that.
Newsworthy moment: Hamlin's feud with Brad Keselowski in the latter stages of the season came to head in the final Nationwide Series race of the season at Homestead. On the 35th lap of the Ford 300, Hamlin blatantly spun Keselowski in what he said was a bid to even the score from a previous incident between the two drivers at Phoenix International Raceway.
In his words: "It has been a great year. We hope to be where [four-time series champion] Jimmie [Johnson] is at in a couple of years, and we're showing that we do have a little bit of strength. I tell you, we're going be there, I promise you. I promise you the next couple of years we're going to win a championship."
