Hamlin's back home
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin arrived at Martinsville Speedway last fall as a young driver who had to prove he belonged among NASCAR's rising stars.
He made it look easy. Hamlin qualified fifth and finished eighth. He raced seven times with Joe Gibbs Racing, making the most of the opportunity to secure a full-time ride for 2006.
This weekend, he returns to NASCAR's oldest, shortest and perhaps trickiest track, a rookie of the year contender and one of the sport's bright new faces.
The Chesterfield, Va., driver showed last season was no fluke when he won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway early this year. He views coming to a track he knows well as a chance to jump-start this season.
"I've never gone there and qualified outside the top five, ever in any kind of car," he said. "It's a track that I know how to get around and I know what it takes to make the car go fast."
That streak was broken Friday, when qualified 41st.
Jimmy Johnson toured the .538-mile oval at 96.736 mph in his Hendrick Chevrolet, barely beating Jamie McMurray for the pole position in Sunday's DirecTV 500 Nextel Cup race.
Through five points races, though, Hamlin's finished in the top 10 only once, making it harder to feel as confident on the .538-mile oval, especially given the competition.
"There's also a lot of guys like Jeff Gordon who've got plenty of laps around (Martinsville) too, and they're at this level for a reason, because they're the best. My goals are realistic: let's finish in the top 10 again and I'll be happy."
Gordon has won seven Nextel Cup races at Martinsville, including a sweep last season.
Hamlin is 17th in the points race, and tied with Gibbs teammate J.J. Yeley for second in the rookie of the year race. Both trail Clint Bowyer by just six points.
Hamlin knows he's cost himself a chance to be in better position, and at least one top 10. Last week, he finished 14th at Bristol despite two pit road penalties.
"I was fuming to say the least," he said. "It was a learning thing. I was beating myself up and telling everybody I was sorry I was making the rookie mistakes I was making. You know, it's just part of it. As I get older, hopefully I'll get over it."
With Hamlin also driving full time for Gibbs in the Busch Series, which is idle for a week, Hamlin would seem likely to have more free time than on normal weekends. But there's the sudden stardom to deal with, and he's still adjusting to that.
He has become more recognizable because of his commercials for Fed Ex, his Nextel Cup sponsor. And now the baby-faced driver is spotted more frequently by NASCAR fans, among the most enthusiastic in sports. In Virginia, it's doubly hard to blend in.
"It's starting to get a little hard to have fun with just your friends now because you've got a lot of people that come up and a lot of people are just proud of me, where I'm from, being here," he said this week at Richmond International Raceway, about a 15-minute drive from where he grew up. "I'm glad to have all those people support me."
