Denny Hamlin doesn’t mind being the underdog in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Last year, most eyes were on him entering the first race of NASCAR's Chase. That’s not the case in 2012 as his No. 11 team is seeded 12th in the standings.
Hamlin will try to improve on that beginning with today's rain-delayed Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. The race, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, will begin at noon ET.
A year ago, with six wins in the regular season, Hamlin topped the points. The expectations were high. The pressure was higher.
“You expect to go out there and win the Chase, just like everyone says you're supposed to do." Hamlin said. "And so you've got that weight on your shoulders. That's why I particularly like our position right now, because we have nothing to lose, but (are) just going forward.”
In the 2010 Chase, Hamlin held serve through the first two races, then relinquished the top spot to Jimmie Johnson and regained the lead again with three races to go. In the penultimate Chase race at Phoenix International Raceway, Hamlin ran out of gas -- literally. Hamlin led 190 of 312 laps. He was running second when he was forced to pit for a late-race fuel stop on Lap 298 and had to salvage a 12th-place finish.
Although he entered the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a 15-point advantage over Jimmie Johnson, Hamlin was emotionally spent. He started 37th and, 24 laps into the race, Hamlin slid up into Greg Biffle. It was all Hamlin could do to battle back and finish 14th. Hamlin was despondent as Johnson celebrated his fifth Sprint Cup championship in the background.
This year, Hamlin squeaked into a wild-card berth in the Chase with his win at Michigan International Speedway in June. He spent just four of the first 26 races among the top 10 in the points standings and when the points were reset for the Chase, Hamlin remained 12th -- where he’d been the last two weeks.
But where Hamlin was hurt at times by poor decisions last season, that hasn't been the case recently. His Joe Gibbs Racing team’s valiant recovery at Richmond International Raceway after being caught up in an early accident proved to the driver how solid his crew is for the stretch.
“That was a huge, huge step for our team,” Hamlin said. “They did an amazing job fixing our race car. It’s the best repair job they’ve ever done. I wish they’d done that good of a job at Homestead after we got in an accident.
“They’ve really stepped up, from the pit crew to the guys on the cars, they’ve really stepped up over the last three weeks and we’ve needed them to. We’re at least trending in the right direction going into the Chase.”
Hamlin has qualified for all six Chases he’s been eligible for since he began running in Sprint Cup full time in 2006. But last year’s second-place finish was his best showing to date. As demanding as the experience was for the 30-year-old, Hamlin learned valuable lessons in the process.
“We have a little more thicker skin,” Hamlin said. “We’re a little more battle-tested than what we were last year. There’s so many different experiences and things that I’ve learned through the last five Chases and hope to apply to this one. But it’s all really just about having good race cars and having good luck. That’s really what it takes, 10 solid weeks to win a championship.
“I wish we were running as good as what we were last year in the sense of the all-out speed that we had, but I wouldn’t trade our position. Yeah, we’re starting 12 points behind, but we know we can make that up pretty quick. I like the position I’m in. I really do. I think it will be a steady climb to the front.”
That’s what it will take for Hamlin when he starts the rescheduled Geico 400 on Monday from 27th. But Hamlin has become increasingly more competitive on the 1.5-mile track with finishes of fifth and eighth in his last two starts.
“Our cars have not been really fast on the short go all weekend,” Hamlin said. “So, we got to figure out what we have to do to get a little bit more of the speed that we need. The tires are not wearing out like they should and it’s going to be a real track position race. It’s something that’s not great for us.”
