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CUP: Hamlin The Next To Challenge Johnson?
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/24/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Denny Hamlin celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 in Homestead-Miami. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

There’s always a danger in NASCAR of assuming that momentum will carry over from one season to another. At the end of 2008, Carl Edwards closed the season with three victories in the final four races and most folks assumed that if anyone would knock Jimmie Johnson off in ’09, it would be Edwards.

Instead, Edwards went 0-for-2009 and skidded home to an 11th-place finish in the points.

So take any prognostications over the winter with a grain of salt. That said, the one driver who these seemed to really step up and emerge as a credible threat to the Hendrick empire was Virginian Denny Hamlin, who not only won the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but posted two victories, two runner-up finishes and six top fives in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Denny Hamlin: 2009 Season Photos

If Hamlin and his crew chief Mike Ford can ever figure out a way to get the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry up front at Dover International Speedway — Hamlin’s worst track in the Chase and one of Johnson’s best — then there might actually be a champion next year other than Johnson.

Hamlin is already thinking about it.

“There's some things
I need to do to get better,” he said after Sunday’s victory at Homestead. “I feel like through the season I've gotten better. I'm figuring out what I need to make my race car better. Mike is starting to figure it out. We're getting on the same page now, figuring out what we need to be good at racing. One thing we're going to have to improve on next year is qualifying. We can't come from 38th like we did today. It looks good on paper, but realistically you put yourself at more risk. So there's some things we need to do to be better, and I think this Chase has just made us stronger, because now I think everyone is focused and everyone is fired up about next year knowing that we're one of the few guys that can run with that 48 (Johnson) every single week.”

What was perhaps most impressive about the performance of Hamlin, Ford and the rest of the team was how they emerged as the leaders at JGR. With Tony Stewart off to form his own team and the blindingly fast but emotionally erratic Kyle Busch still trying to come to grips with the ups and downs of Cup racing 38 times a year, Hamlin became the grown-up among the drivers.

“I think what we've kind of learned is watching these guys kind of mature really taking a leadership role, Denny within the sport and Mike within our shop, really kind of the future is exciting for us,” said team President J.D. Gibbs. “So I think really both those guys work well together. They're quiet, they're not going to talk a lot about stuff, they just kind of get it done. That's what encourages me coming up the next couple years for JGR.”


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