CUP: Hamlin, Busch Chase Johnson

Sprint Cup

CUP: Hamlin, Busch Chase Johnson

Joe Gibbs Racing is drawing a bead on NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson...

Mike Hembree | Posted January 25, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Kyle Busch (Left) and Denny Hamlin (Right) are the ones to watch in 2010 to deny NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson his fifth in a row. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Denny Hamlin needs a good run at Martinsville. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

If Jimmie Johnson can be beaten – admittedly, that’s a formidable IF, general preseason consensus places the most faith in Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Hamlin is ready with a capital R. He talked last year about tiring of being a contender and lusting for the championship. That thinking seems doubled in this preseason.

Busch is Busch. He’s Rowdy. He’s ready. He could be talked into racing a gazelle barefoot on the Serengeti Plain – and figures he could win – in a heartbeat. As long as he’s racing, no one should underestimate the fiery Busch’s shot at a championship.

Hamlin ran strong enough last year to challenge Johnson, but his cars broke and he had one of the worst seasons luck-wise of any driver. Fill in a few blanks, and he’s a more than legitimate championship contender this year.

“Last year I said I didn’t want to be a contender any more, that I want to be a champion,” Hamlin said. “I was sick of having expectations and no results to back them up. I think we did that this year. We just didn’t have the reliability to win the championship. We just didn’t have the parts and pieces. I think I know how to win a championship. It’s just going to be executing it.”

Or executing Johnson.

Hamlin figures, as do many other observers, that Johnson’s run must end soon.

“That’s just strictly by the odds,” he said. “The higher the number, the tougher it is. They’ve been able to defy those odds no matter how high they’ve been over the last couple of years. To me, it’s amazing they still keep progressing and staying at the top of the sport for the last four years. But all it does is fuel up everyone else in that garage. I know it fuels me up to want to be the guy who takes him off his chair and gets on the pedestal. I don’t think anyone in the garage wants it worse than I do right now.”

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Mike Hembree

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