CUP: Hamlin – All Ready For Title Run

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hamlin – All Ready For Title Run

Denny Hamlin says his team is in fine shape for run at championship…

Mike Hembree | Posted September 08, 2012 Richmond, VA

Denny Hamlin drew the ire of NASCAR for making comments deemed critical of the Gen-6 car. (Photo: Getty Images)

Denny Hamlin says he’s ready.

Two years after seeing the Sprint Cup championship slip from his grasp in the season’s last race, Hamlin has positioned himself again for a very clear shot at his first title. And he says he’s in better shape to take that shot than in 2010.

“I feel like I'm as mentally tough as I've ever been,” Hamlin said. “I feel like I'm more focused than I've ever been. It's tough to say what will happen, and circumstances will change, but I feel like I'm at the top of my game right now, and I feel like every part of my race team is at the top of their game. There's no limit on what we can do for the next 10 races."

Evidence supports Hamlin’s theory. He won the past two races – at Bristol and Atlanta, and, with four wins for the season, will start the Chase at the top of the revised standings.

Hamlin is pointing toward the Sept. 16 start of the Chase at Chicagoland Speedway. As the championship run begins, there will be discussion about the remarkable run made in the Chase by last year’s champion, Tony Stewart. He won five of the Chase’s 10 races.

Hamlin said he isn’t looking for that result to be duplicated.

"I think the guy that wins the championship will probably have two – maybe three – races that he wins in the Chase,” he said. “The five that Tony put together was an absurd amount. I understand everyone wants to use that as optimism that, 'Okay, Tony did it, so we're going to do it this year,' but those are the circumstances that never happen. We're going to count on all-out speed and what we've got to bring us a championship."

Although Hamlin already has missed a good chance to win the title, he said he doesn’t feel any particular urgency to notch one this year.

"No more urgency than in previous years,” he said. “The only reason is that I'm not in my mid-40s (he’s 31) – no offense to all of the drivers that are. I've got some time. I know I'm with a race team that's very capable of winning a championship for years to come, but you want to jump on all of those opportunities that you have when you are the best car of the field – not to say
that we are.

“We'll know when we leave here where we stack up, and I think that if we have another good, solid run this weekend, it's going to be expected of us to win the championship, and I will expect it of us."

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. 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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