CUP: ‘Conservative’ Racing Working For Hamlin

Sprint Cup

CUP: ‘Conservative’ Racing Working For Hamlin

Between Denny Hamlin and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship point lead is Jimmie Johnson...

Mike Hembree | Posted October 14, 2010 Concord, NC

Denny Hamlin (Left) trails Jimmie Johnson (Right) in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings.

Denny Hamlin has done almost everything right in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

He’s been relatively conservative, saving his cars for the end of the race and avoiding on-track confrontations that might dump him into a bad finish.

As a result, Hamlin has had Chase finishes of second (Loudon), ninth (Dover), 12th (Kansas) and eighth (California).

Still and all, he sits second to Jimmie Johnson, 36 points behind, entering Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a track that is expected to be kind to both Hamlin and Johnson.

Hamlin’s Chase run this year is a clear illustration of how hard one must race to stop the Johnson Express. Johnson had an uncharacteristic 25th-place run to open the Chase at Loudon, but has responded in fine style – a first, second and third – since then. After that second-place run at Kansas, he replaced Hamlin atop the point standings.

Hamlin figures his plan of staying close to the top is working.

“For me, it’s important to stay close within the first five races and then really go for it in the last five, and I feel like we’re executing that well,” Hamlin said Thursday.

He said striking a balance between aggressive racing and trying to avoid catastrophic wrecks is rough.

“It’s a tough balance,” he said. “The first three or four races, I’ve been trying to avoid wrecks [more] than worrying about winning races because the wrecks can take me out of the championship. … We’re going out here these next few weeks and really feel like we can gain points at the top. I’m in the position I felt like I wanted to be at this point in the Chase.”

He admitted that he “lost some spots last week” on green-flag restarts because of his conservative approach. “It hurts you a little bit, but you’re giving up five or 10 points each week to be conservative, and that’s better than the alternative, which would be losing 100. That’s hard to overcome. Not only the points – it’s just your mindset changes so much when you get more than 100 points behind.”

He said drivers are becoming “eager” as the point standings shuffle.

“I think at this point you see guys that maybe had a bad week last week be more aggressive out on the race track this week,” he said. “Now they’ve got to finish up in the top few cars each week to get back in it. I think everyone’s objective changes from week to week based off where they’re at in the standings.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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