CUP: Hamlin Launching New Era?

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hamlin Launching New Era?

Denny Hamlin is the new NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader...

Tom Jensen | Posted November 07, 2010 Fort Worth, TX

Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota, celebrates with a burn out after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Years from now, Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 may be mentioned in the same breath as the 1979 Daytona 500 in terms of how it changed NASCAR’s destiny.

Strong words, perhaps, but true nonetheless.

Denny Hamlin won the race, his eighth of the year, but it wasn’t the victory so much that mattered as much as it is the points. After being slow all through qualifying and practice, Hamlin’s car came alive just as Jimmie Johnson's crew stumbled badly. The end result is that Hamlin will carry a 33-point lead to Phoenix next week lead and in position to be the first NASCAR Sprint Cup champion not named Johnson since 2005.

If Hamlin goes on to win the championship and break Johnson’s stranglehold, it could signal a whole new era of interest in NASCAR. And with Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, two of the true gentleman of NASCAR, nearly coming to blows after a mid-race crash — not to mention Chad Knaus replacing his own pit crew mid-race — surely tongues will be wagging this week over what happened at Texas on Sunday.

And yet for all the insanity that went on at Texas on Sunday — and there was plenty — Hamlin, crew chief Mike Ford and the rest of the JGR team were almost surreal in their serenity after the race.

Hamlin led only 31 of 334 laps at Texas on Sunday, but he was out front at winning time, passing Mark Martin on Lap 306 and holding over the final 29 laps to cruise to victory over Matt Kenseth, Martin, Joey Logano and Greg Biffle.

You’d think that afterwards Hamlin would have been excited to be in the points lead, amped up over his dramatic come-from-behind victory. Yet Hamlin appeared calm, cool and collected.

“Well, for me, I'm going to continue to just race relaxed, and honestly, I think back to a couple years ago, and even late in these restarts and what not, just — I don't get excited any more,” Hamlin insisted. “I just don't let things get to me much anymore and just race relaxed. I'm really not nervous going into races. I was more nervous at the very first Chase race in New Hampshire getting ready to start that race than I was from then to this point.”

So that means from here on it, it’s business as usual for Hamlin with only Phoenix and Homestead left on the schedule.

Despite winning a Sprint Cup Series-high eight races in 2010, Denny Hamlin (Left) and crew chief Mike Ford (Right) failed to win the title. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“For me we're on the cusp of trying to get our first championship, and as long as we keep doing what we've been doing, we should be OK,” he said.

“I'm going to race Phoenix as if I'm 33 (points) behind to be honest with you,” said Hamlin. “There's no comfortable margin going into Homestead because anything can happen. So for me Phoenix being an up-and-down racetrack for me, I've got to really be focused on practice day to get what I need to give Mike (Ford) the information that I need and just 100 percent stay focused is all I can do. But like I say, I'll not going to be conservative having the lead. I'm going to want to stretch that out before we get to Homestead. So that's pretty much my mindset.”

But if Hamlin professed to be calm, normally mild-mannered crew chief Ford bared his fangs over the mistakes made by Johnson’s crew on pit road, mistakes that likely cost Johnson the race and a fifth championship. It got so bad that Jeff Gordon’s crew was brought in to service Johnson car over the final 135 laps or so.

Ford selected a pit stall next to Johnson’s and had a bird’s-eye view of those mistakes.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

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