Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Clash Of The (Struggling) Titans
Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have won five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races each this year...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 31, 2010   Long Pond, PA
Jimmie Johnson is a past winner at Atlanta. (Photo: Getty Images)
No one has won more NASCAR Sprint Cup races this year than Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson, each of whom has visited victory lane five times this season.

Curiously, though, these two still have a lot to prove, starting with Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross 500 at Pocono Raceway.

For while, Hamlin and Johnson have won the most Cup races this season, they rank third and fourth in points behind Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon.

Worse yet, despite some brilliant hot streaks earlier this season, Hamlin and Johnson are stone cold at the moment. In his last three races, Johnson has finished 31st at Daytona, 25th at Chicago and 22nd at Indianapolis, the latter being a place he had won three of the previous four races in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Hamlin has been in as much of a deep blue funk as Johnson has — in the last five races, Hamlin has had an average finish of 19th, with an eighth-place run at Chicago being the best result for the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota during that period.
The left side front damage is visible on Denny Hamlin's car as he celebrates in Victory Lane earlier this year after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gillette Fusion Proglide 500 at Pocono Raceway. (Photo: Getty Images)

With the Chase for the Sprint Cup a mere six races away after this weekend, that makes winning on Sunday a priority for the two drivers, both of whom are eager to enter the Chase with more bonus points than the other. Currently, both men are tied with 50 bonus points, while no other driver has more than 20. Thus, winning is of a paramount importance, because it means whoever wins both gets 10 bonus points for himself and keeps the rest of the field from getting them.

Both drivers are off to a good start at Pocono.

In Friday’s opening round of practice at the 2.5-mile track, Johnson was first and Hamlin second, signaling what may be a clash of the titans on Sunday. In qualifying, Hamlin was third, three positions ahead of Johnson.

“We feel like this is a place we need to get 10 points,” Hamlin said bluntly. “You look at the next five or six races, we feel like if we don’t win a couple of them, then we’ve taken a step back. I think we’re going to be OK. I think the first practice is going to be a good indication that we do have the speed.”

Hamlin is looking for a combination of speed and handling in his Toyota. “We’ve got good speed, which is good,” said Hamlin. “We were up there in practice. We are continuing to work on what it takes to put it all together here. We’ve had really good runs, but we’ve had cars that have had a lot of speed and not handled well and we’ve had cars that have handled well and not had good speed and won with both. We need to get both of them together.”

Both drivers are exceptionally good at Pocono, Hamlin having won here four times and Johnson twice. In his last six races at Pocono, Johnson has finished seventh or better five times, while Hamlin has won two in a row here.
At the Pocono Raceway event in June earlier this year, Jimmie Johnson qualified 26th for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Gillette Fusion Proglide 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Asked how important it was to get hot with the Chase approaching, Johnson indicated that it was a high priority.

“That's what it's all about,” said Johnson. “We're getting to that part of the year. I've had strong years where we've entered the Chase with a lot of momentum and have won a championship; and we've had years where we didn't have the best summer and have still gone on to win the championship. So I don't think there's a rhyme or reason to it. The 10 tracks in the Chase, a lot of them are much different than anything we run on during the summer and very special and unique into their own.”

Johnson hasn’t won here since sweeping both Pocono races in 2004, but he thinks his car will be better this time around.

“I feel like we've been making slow progress each trip here and closing the gap,” said Johnson. “For a while it was the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) and lately it's been the No. 11 (Hamlin). I feel like we're making small gains. The race we had here in the spring, we started really deep in the pack ... and worked our way up to a top-five finish. I think we could have been probably second or third if things worked out a little better for us. So, I'm excited and looking forward to it. The cars have been getting a little bit better for us, like I said; and I think we can be more competitive this trip than we were here in the spring.”

LINK > NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES QUALIFYING: PENNSYLVANIA 500 - POCONO RACEWAY

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

Play! SPEED Fantasy Racing and Super 7 Sweep
tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.