RACE INFO:
Event: Brickyard 400
Date/Time: July 25, 2010/1:30 p.m. EST
2009 winner: Jimmie Johnson
2009 polesitter: Mark Martin
Distance: 160 laps/400 miles
Track Length: 2.5 miles
Banking: 9 degrees
Track Shape: Oval
EXPRESS NOTES:
Chicago Review: Despite battling a tight car for the majority of the race, Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing Team scored an impressive eighth-place finish in the LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet (Ill.). Hamlin and team saw the finish, the team’s eighth top-10 finish of the 2010 season, as an important step in bolstering their place in the Chase standings. With the finish, Hamlin’s second best at the 1.5-mile track, Hamlin improves one position, to fourth, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading to Indianapolis.
“All things considered, it was a good race for us,” Hamlin said. “We worked really hard on the car all night and as a result we got a top-10 finish. It’s a long season and finishes like this on a day when maybe you don’t have the best car on the track go a long way toward qualifying for the Chase.”
Hamlin at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: This weekend will mark Hamlin's fifth Cup start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and 171st-career Cup start since making his debut in 2005. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a track that boasts over 100 years of racing history, was a place Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Office team wanted to forget at the conclusion of last year’s Brickyard 400. Hamlin’s day unraveled when he pitted for the first time on the afternoon and the drive shaft broke on exit from pit road. In addition, the shifter broke off the transmission leaving Hamlin not only unable to shift gears, but physically holding the shifter in his right hand. The Chesterfield (Va.) native coasted around the 2.5-mile track and into the garage where crew chief Mike Ford and the FedEx crew replaced the drive shaft and shifter in less than 20 minutes but lost 16 laps on the track to the leader in the process. In 2008, Hamlin and the #11 team endured - and successfully managed - the nearly untenable tire situation at Indy to score a well-deserved third-place finish in the Brickyard 400. Leading for a total of 26 laps during the two stints that brought the field to the final competition caution, Hamlin exited pit road third and was unable to catch eventual winner Jimmie Johnson or runner-up Carl Edwards. Hamlin started tenth at Indy in 2007 and suffered through an early pit road speeding penalty on lap 17 that dropped him to 42nd place. He steadily worked his way back through the field and was nearing the end of the fuel run on lap 127, when he notified the crew that he was out of fuel. The loss of position hurt Hamlin on the day and he was forced to settle for a 22nd-place finish. In 2006, expectations were high after a dominating performance at Pocono – a track that shares characteristics with Indy – but intermittent engine problems left Hamlin running on seven cylinders for much of the race. Though down on power, Hamlin was able to navigate the turns at Indy as quick as anyone in the field but was ultimately losing too much time on exit and on the long stretch to work his way any higher than tenth on the day.
HAMLIN CONVERSATION – Indianapolis Motor Speedway:
You’ve made no secret that this is a place you hold above almost every other track as a place you’d like to win – what is it about IMS?: “There is so much history here and I think every driver wants to win here and be a part of that history. I had the chance to visit the museum here a few years ago and to see all of the race-winning cars and the people who made racing here what it is today was really cool. This track has seen it all. Indy is a lot like Daytona because winning means so much at those places that it almost lives outside of the schedule and points, and thinking about the Chase. I know I how I felt winning at Richmond, and I know from talking to Tony (Stewart) and Mike (Ford) what Indy means to them. This is definitely one I want to win for this team.”
You’ve been close at Indy before - can this year be the year for the #11 team at this famous track?: “I think we’ve shown at Indy that we have what it takes to win there and the team really builds great cars for this track. It’s a track where JGR cars have won before and a track that I really like from the driver’s seat so we go there feeling like we can unload fast, get better in practice and compete on Sunday. To win here you need the car, the driver and the crew all at their best, and then have a lot of things go your way. If we take the issues that have hurt us here – we had motor trouble, a speeding penalty and then more mechanical problems last season – if you take those issues away there is no reason we can’t run up front.”
History aside, what it is like running around Indy?: “Indy is a flat track and that usually brings out the best in this #11 team, so we see this weekend as a huge opportunity. I think I am at my best on flat tracks like Pocono and Indy because it’s where I have the most experience and I can really feel what the car is doing and then share that with Mike (Ford) and the crew. At Indy, you are wide open down the stretches so you need horsepower but where you really pick up time and momentum is coming off of two and four and on to the long straights. You are on the gas in the short chute so if you can roll through those turns, keep your momentum and pick up the throttle quickly on the straight you’ll be in good shape. It’s a combination of lifting and using just the right amount of brake. Indy keeps everyone, driver and crew the same, on our toes.”
