Hamlin on the verge of big things in 2010

Denny Hamlin is poised to be a championship contender is 2010.

His victory in the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season vaulted the No. 11 team to fifth in the final point standings. He improved his win tally for the year to career-high four victories (tying him with teammate Kyle Busch). The win also lifted the team’s morale and Hamlin’s level of confidence entering this year.

“I’m excited for sure,” Hamlin said. “With the discussions I’ve had with the guys at Joe Gibbs Racing and the direction they decided to take in the offseason, I’m definitely confident. It might not show for the first six months of the season, but we’re going to set ourselves up to be right where we need to be when the Chase starts.”

Hamlin, like other Chase for the Sprint Cup regulars, hopes to be the driver that can thwart Jimmie Johnson’s stranglehold on the championship. So it’s not surprising that his crew have adopted a pace-yourself mentality similar to the No. 48 team’s where the squad doesn’t peak early during the first 26 races then burnout during the playoffs like many other challengers.

Still, it will take more than talent and good intentions to derail the Johnson express.

“Luck is a factor,” Hamlin said. “Speed is a factor. It’s not just having all your ducks in a row and making sure you have the fastest car each week. It doesn’t work like that. It’s the strategy. It’s the fuel mileage. It’s the luck. It’s not getting into wrecks. There’s so much that formulates into being a champion.

“The 48 car has been the standard, but he’s also been really lucky in a lot of situations. So he’s had all those pieces put together over the last four years.”

There are those that have naively underestimated Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Ford over the years — even the driver himself. However, Ford is one of the most calculating veterans in the garage. His leadership of the team — and patience with Hamlin through the driver’s maturation process — has paid off over the last four seasons.

“For the first year and a half, I thought Mike was an old school guy,” Hamlin said. “He’s come up with some great innovated ideas that has made our team what it is now. I may have doubted him at times, but I tell you over the last 18 months he’s gained all my respect.”

And although Hamlin admits to "losing his head" at times, he has steadily earned respect from his fellow competitors through his performance over the past four years. In each full season in the Sprint Cup Series, Hamlin has been a Chase contender.

However, Hamlin hopes to gain a similar regard from the sanctioning body as his public stock rises. He expects to meet with NASCAR in the next few days as part of the sport’s recent commitment toward establishing a more open line of communication with his garage. Hamlin was on vacation in Los Angeles last week when the individual team discussions with the sanctioning body began but was pleased when President Mike Helton told Hamlin what ideas were on the table.

The extremely outspoken racer has concrete ideas on what changes he would like to see in the future. A longtime advocate of eliminating the no-bump drafting zones and racing below the yellow line at Daytona and Talladega, Hamlin will take satisfaction in seeing both rules disappear if NASCAR indeed continues down that path.

“I told everyone that’s the way it should be and now it’s going to happen,” Hamlin said. “I love it. They gave us the asphalt. They gave us the race cars. And now we’re going to race them.

"You’ll see really, really good racing without a doubt."