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NASCAR

Hamlin looking to break Hendrick's grip on Martinsville

By SceneDaily.com

Mar 28, 2009

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The last several times NASCAR’s Cup series has convened at Martinsville Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have basically been the toast of the town.

One notable exception was one year ago this weekend. And Denny Hamlin was the reason.

In that race, the native Virginian derailed the Hendrick domination – if only for a day - to score a popular victory at the track where he turned his first laps in a Late Model Stock car almost a decade earlier.

Now a year later, Hamlin says the triumph ranks right at the top of his achievements in racing.

“It’s a milestone in his career, I believe, but as far as a team, I felt like it was something that we all needed at that point,” crew chief Mike Ford said Friday.

Aside from Johnson and Gordon, Hamlin has established himself as the best among the rest at wheeling a car around at the .526-mile Martinsville oval. So if anyone has a shot to dethrone the Hendrick duo in Sunday’s Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500, Hamlin and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team would seem to be a good bet.

“It’s always been the 24 [of Gordon], the 48 [of Johnson] and us every time we come here and I hopefully don’t see any of that changing,” Hamlin said.

Nor does Ford. In his seven starts at Martinsville dating back to the fall 2005 race, Hamlin has finished outside the top 10 just once. His last five trips to the paper clip-shaped track have produced finishes of no worse than sixth.

Over the last seven races, Gordon has a victory and no finishes outside the top five. Johnson has found victory lane four times and come home no worse than fourth.

When Hamlin led 82 laps en route to his Martinsville triumph, it served notice for the first time in a long time that the Hendrick pair could still be beat at the place that has become their personal playground.

“I don’t know that it rained on their parade,” Ford said. “We might have got a passing shower. They’re pretty good. We’ve been close to them at times and [with] a little bit of track position we might be able to have a little bit more than what we’ve got.

“A lot of these tracks, it’s hard for the outside world to see, but if you’ve got somebody that really likes a race track, it doesn’t matter what you put in the race car. They’re going to run good and I think that’s the case with those guys here.”

While Hamlin certainly excels at Martinsville, he doesn’t consider the tricky oval an easy track to master. He says that running well here requires a delicate balance of knowing how to effectively manage tires, approach Martinsville’s tight, flat corners and best communicate the changes a car needs to improve over the course of the weekend. And that information, he says, seems to build on itself from one Martinsville trip to the next.

“You either run really well here or find yourself in a wreck or with a mechanical problem,” Hamlin said. “It is a tough race track to love. It’s been a good track for me. I’ve had relatively good luck here but trying to keep that going is tough. That’s why people either love it or hate it, because they know it either makes or breaks them as far as points.”

While Hamlin sees the track not nearly as physically demanding as the high-banked Bristol, for example, he believes it’s one of the toughest venues on drivers from a mental standpoint.

Sometimes, Hamlin says, it’s even necessary to give up speed in practice in order to be fast in the race, which usually features longer runs and more tire wear.

“The feel for being good in practice is a total different feel from being good in the race and it’s just something that we know we have to compensate for,” Hamlin said.

Not that Hamlin minds going the extra mile to master Martinsville. After all, the track hosts two of only four races – Richmond hosts the other two – each season in his home state. Hamlin also still has vivid memories of typically running well at the track’s annual Late Model Stock race only to fall short each time.

“That’s what made it so much more gratifying when I actually did win,” he said.

Despite not winning again since this race last year, Hamlin's confident he can get back to victory lane this weekend. And he’s just as sure that his chief challenges will come in the form of Johnson and Gordon.

“We’d like to back up a win here,” Hamlin said. “It’s a very special place with a lot of history and we always seem to run well here. We always seem to find ourselves in the top three, usually chasing a Hendrick car.”