NASCAR Cup Series

Attitude of Hamlin, Harvick could be key

Published Oct. 20, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

Jeff Hammond

So Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team are atop the points at the halfway mark of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. Sunday at Martinsville Speedway will be the start of the last of the five races in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Even though Johnson and his team are back on top, I think there are some glimmers of hope for the other Chase contenders.

What you aren’t seeing out of Johnson’s team this year, as in years past, is them leading laps, kicking tail and getting max points every weekend. When you see Johnson struggle at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a track he has owned, I think that’s a really good sign for the Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvicks of the world. Those drivers and their teams have to realize and have the attitude that Johnson is not invincible.

We went through a similar situation back in 1985. To this day, I think that team we had with driver Darrell Waltrip wasn’t given enough credit for being resilient. We were like a bunch of old mules with blinders on. We weren’t the thoroughbred that Bill Elliott was. We weren’t going out and dominating races and winning the Winston Million like Bill did.

We simply weren’t the showhorse we would have liked to have been. We just stayed true to each other and kept pulling hard toward a common goal. We wore that other group down and we did what we do best – we just didn’t go away. We never threw our hands up at Elliott’s team and said “fine – we give up – the championship is yours.”

I think that kind of mentality is going to be very important for Hamlin and Harvick. Both of their crew chiefs, Mike Ford (Hamlin) and Gil Martin (Harvick), can use that to keep their guys focused. Their attitude has to be that they can beat Johnson’s team. They have to ask themselves “can we and will we do this?” The answer has to be, “Yes, we can and yes, we will.”

You have to take advantage of attitude and a positive thought process.

A lot of this comes from the team meetings and challenging your guys to raise their game. You have to recognize where you are weak and you have to take advantage of where you are strong.

That’s why I have mentioned in the past of why Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing team have to be looking forward to Talladega Superspeedway next week. They know they have an excellent opportunity to make up ground on Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team.

Mike Ford will be reminding Hamlin and his Joe Gibbs Racing team that they have an excellent opportunity Sunday at Martinsville to get max points. These crew chiefs will be rallying their troops and pointing out repeatedly that they can beat Johnson.

Hamlin and his team struggled at times Saturday night at Charlotte, but at the same time, they have to be thrilled that they kept it as close to Johnson as they did. Hamlin sits second and trails Johnson by only 41 points.

Now this weekend, you know Denny will be on the attack because he runs really, really well at Martinsville.

Now for Kevin, his attack track is a week away. The RCR cars aren’t historically that strong at Martinsville. Kevin has won at Martinsville in a truck, so you can’t totally discount his chances Sunday. So if he can just hold serve, well then that would be a successful weekend.

However, Kevin is extremely strong at Talladega. So next week he will have his setting on all-out-attack.

That’s why I think these next two races are extremely important. After they are completed, we will see if we really have a three-man race or is it already down to a two-man race.