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Sprint Cup
CUP: Friday Kansas Notebook
Denny Hamlin will start ninth on Sunday…
Denny Hamlin, (Right) driver of the No.11 FedEx Toyota, surveys the damage to his car after hitting the wall during NASCAR testing at Kansas Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
HAMLIN AT CRITICAL POINT — Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway is shaping up as a critical race for Denny Hamlin, pilot of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Hamlin, picked by many as the pre-season favorite to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, is third in points right now, 8 points behind Jimmie Johnson and 15 back of leader Brad Keselowski.
While that’s certainly not an insurmountable margin, Hamlin can ill-afford any more miscues or poor finishes after leaving points in a couple of earlier races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Hamlin was not helped by the fact that he crashed hard during testing Thursday and will have to go to a backup car this weekend.
During Friday’s lone round of NASCAR Sprint Cup practice, Hamlin was 21st on the board. He qualified ninth, two positions behind Johnson, but well ahead of Keselowski, who will start 25th.
While Hamlin said he was fully recovered from his crash yesterday, he admitted to some trepidation about Sunday’s race being another event determined by who can save the most fuel instead of who can go the fastest.
"I wouldn't say you look forward to it because it's definitely tougher to control your own destiny,” Hamlin said of the prospect of a fuel-mileage race. “You don't look forward to it because as a driver you're just like, ‘Hope my guy on top of the box is smarter than the rest of the guys.’ The driver responsibility when you have races like this is taking down percentage-wise quite a bit.
“Honestly, you have to do your job on the race track, but just don't mess up more than going out there and attacking and being able to make up positions, because you're going to make up more positions with your strategy than you will ever having a fast race car and a good driver.”
SHR JUGGLES CREW CHIEFS — Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed a recent Silly Season rumor by announcing that crew chief Tony Gibson will move from Ryan Newman’s No. 39 SHR entry to Danica Patrick’s No. 10, starting in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway.
Taking over for Newman, will be SHR vice president of competition Matt Borland, who won 12 races and 37 poles with Newman while the two were together at Penske Racing from 2002-06.
An equally big piece of news from the team is that Steve Addington will stay on as Stewart’s crew chief next season, with Stewart’s longtime crew chief Greg Zipadelli serving as competition director next year.
Stewart also had some news about Eldora Speedway, the famed dirt track he owns in Rossburg, Ohio. The popular “Prelude to the Dream” charity late-model race at Eldora is off the schedule for next year.
“The Prelude on hiatus it takes a ton of work to put the Prelude on. We are changing our format for how we run the Dream that weekend making it a three day weekend with that series. We are trying to focus on that a little bit more and some changes that we think are going to be better for our late model race. We just needed to take a year off while we focus on that and make sure that we don’t get overloaded for that.”
And what of the rumor that Eldora would host a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race next year?
“The rumor about the Trucks, trust me I would be ecstatic if we could get any NASCAR race at Eldora that would be great,” said Stewart. “I have talked to NASCAR they have been looking at all kinds of different tracks. It has been brought up in conversation but that is about as far as it has come right now.”
NEW TRACK TOUGH — With the new surface and steeper banking at Kansas Speedway, speeds were crazy fast on Friday, as witnessed by Greg Biffle breaking the 191+ miles per hour in practice. But things will be much different for the Hollywood Casino 400 race on Sunday, when the sun is expected to be out all day and temperatures up about 15-20 degrees.
“It’s going to change on Sunday,” said four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon. “It’s going to be warmer the sun will possibly be out. Things are going to be a lot different on Sunday than they are today. Today we have seen some extremely fast speeds, qualifying is going to be ridiculously fast. We are definitely finding the limits of the tire, the grips level, aerodynamics. From inside the car you’ve got to be extremely committed. It is as fast of a track as I can imagine us being at this year. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Michigan but maybe even more demanding than that.”
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.
While that’s certainly not an insurmountable margin, Hamlin can ill-afford any more miscues or poor finishes after leaving points in a couple of earlier races in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Hamlin was not helped by the fact that he crashed hard during testing Thursday and will have to go to a backup car this weekend.
During Friday’s lone round of NASCAR Sprint Cup practice, Hamlin was 21st on the board. He qualified ninth, two positions behind Johnson, but well ahead of Keselowski, who will start 25th.
While Hamlin said he was fully recovered from his crash yesterday, he admitted to some trepidation about Sunday’s race being another event determined by who can save the most fuel instead of who can go the fastest.
"I wouldn't say you look forward to it because it's definitely tougher to control your own destiny,” Hamlin said of the prospect of a fuel-mileage race. “You don't look forward to it because as a driver you're just like, ‘Hope my guy on top of the box is smarter than the rest of the guys.’ The driver responsibility when you have races like this is taking down percentage-wise quite a bit.
“Honestly, you have to do your job on the race track, but just don't mess up more than going out there and attacking and being able to make up positions, because you're going to make up more positions with your strategy than you will ever having a fast race car and a good driver.”
SHR JUGGLES CREW CHIEFS — Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed a recent Silly Season rumor by announcing that crew chief Tony Gibson will move from Ryan Newman’s No. 39 SHR entry to Danica Patrick’s No. 10, starting in two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway.
Taking over for Newman, will be SHR vice president of competition Matt Borland, who won 12 races and 37 poles with Newman while the two were together at Penske Racing from 2002-06.
An equally big piece of news from the team is that Steve Addington will stay on as Stewart’s crew chief next season, with Stewart’s longtime crew chief Greg Zipadelli serving as competition director next year.
Stewart also had some news about Eldora Speedway, the famed dirt track he owns in Rossburg, Ohio. The popular “Prelude to the Dream” charity late-model race at Eldora is off the schedule for next year.
“The Prelude on hiatus it takes a ton of work to put the Prelude on. We are changing our format for how we run the Dream that weekend making it a three day weekend with that series. We are trying to focus on that a little bit more and some changes that we think are going to be better for our late model race. We just needed to take a year off while we focus on that and make sure that we don’t get overloaded for that.”
And what of the rumor that Eldora would host a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race next year?
“The rumor about the Trucks, trust me I would be ecstatic if we could get any NASCAR race at Eldora that would be great,” said Stewart. “I have talked to NASCAR they have been looking at all kinds of different tracks. It has been brought up in conversation but that is about as far as it has come right now.”
NEW TRACK TOUGH — With the new surface and steeper banking at Kansas Speedway, speeds were crazy fast on Friday, as witnessed by Greg Biffle breaking the 191+ miles per hour in practice. But things will be much different for the Hollywood Casino 400 race on Sunday, when the sun is expected to be out all day and temperatures up about 15-20 degrees.
“It’s going to change on Sunday,” said four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon. “It’s going to be warmer the sun will possibly be out. Things are going to be a lot different on Sunday than they are today. Today we have seen some extremely fast speeds, qualifying is going to be ridiculously fast. We are definitely finding the limits of the tire, the grips level, aerodynamics. From inside the car you’ve got to be extremely committed. It is as fast of a track as I can imagine us being at this year. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Michigan but maybe even more demanding than that.”
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.
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