Top ten reasons why Denny Hamlin could become the first driver in 27 years to win the rookie title one year, then the Nextel Cup championship the next.

1. The last driver to take the points championship after winning the rookie crown was Dale Earnhardt in 1979-1980. Once the mainstream media picks up on that stat, Hamlin can benefit from all the talk of his “date with the dynasty.”

2. The Car of Tomorrow drives more like the Late Model cars Hamlin was driving just three years ago. His competition learns quickly, but the necessary style fits relative youngster Hamlin like a kid driving glove. It’s not about grip and aggressive corner entry, hence the victory on two worn tires at New Hampshire yesterday.

“The harder I drove it, the slower I went,” said runner-up Jeff Gordon, the typical comment among the veterans and a guy who had four fresh tires.

3. The decision to take just two tires on the last pit stop by Crew Chief Mike Ford put Hamlin in position to win the race. Most of the season, pit stops have taken him out of contention, if not the outright lead. That’s a huge momentum shift.

“That is a big deal that we won this one on pit road,” said Hamlin. “That is redemption for these guys.”

4. When a driver wins with a four-time champion in his mirrors, it says a lot about the guy behind the wheel. “I knew Jeff was coming but it took too long to get to me,” said Hamlin. “But our tires were just giving up, I mean, 30 laps on the tires, and nearly 100 laps on our left sides. I knew it was just going to be a matter of time before we started heading back towards those guys. Man it was half-a-lap long enough.”

5. The Joe Gibbs Racing team has not yet been tagged with any cheating scandals. If the team stays clean, it avoids the problem of relying on something NASCAR officials find and scuttle, which costs points and momentum on and off the track. (It’s not as if JGR hasn’t tried that route in the past, given some of the sideways, or offset, entries of Tony Stewart.)

6. Generally, young drivers have to learn how to run at the front before they win. Hamlin by-passed that approach in his rookie season, scoring two race victories. He got the experience of running at the front of the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship last year when he finished third, so that hurdle is out of the way.

7. Just one week after the infamous incident at Milwaukee, Hamlin has put behind him the furor that erupted after he replaced Aric Almirola behind the wheel of JGR’s Busch Series car midway in the race. Whatever one’s point of view of that oddball scenario, it clearly demonstrated Hamlin’s clout with the Gibbs team.

(The point of view here: Denny flip-flopped with his comments to the media worse than Kyle Busch on his decision to leave Hendrick Motorsports.)

8. JGR has already won three championships in the last seven seasons, one more than Hendrick Motorsports or Roush Fenway Racing.

9. If you plan on winning the title this year, where eight more COT races remain on the schedule and five during the Chase, you’d best have your butt in a Chevy.

10. The ten points awarded race winners for each victory at the start of the Chase are likely to make a difference by the season finale at Homestead.

By moving up to second in the points despite all the pit snafus, Hamlin and Crew Chief Ford remain in a good position to take the risk of going for victories instead of points. He now is just 30 bonus points behind Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

“We feel like we’re running well enough we could make up (the bonus points deficit) if we run the same way we have all year,” said Hamlin. “We would just like to start closer to those guys.”

Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com

Monday, July 2nd, 2007 Filed under Uncategorized |