Loudon, N.H. – While Denny Hamlin has avoided the dread sophomore jinx, he is not satisfied with being second in the NASCAR Nextel Cup season points standings going into today’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Last year’s top rookie wants to win races – the sooner, the better.
It’s not for the glory, though. Hamlin is thinking championship, and winning races could be the key to that, thanks to NASCAR’s new Chase for the Championship format.
In its fourth year, the Chase – a 10-race playoff for the title among the best drivers in the stock car series – has changed two key elements.
NASCAR expanded the 2007 Chase from 10 to 12 drivers and added a seeding process in which the eligible drivers will start the postseason with a base of 5,000 points plus 10 additional points for each victory during the 26-race regular season.
Eight of the current top 12 have won races this season, including four each by points leader Jeff Gordon and fifth-place Jimmie Johnson.
Despite his exalted spot in the points, Hamlin has yet to win in 2007, meaning that if the Chase began with today’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300, he would find himself ninth in points.
Not even the 100-point penalties NASCAR levied against Hendrick Motorsports teammates Gordon and Johnson last week in the wake of their cars failing inspection in Sonoma, Calif., would make a significant difference under the new format.
“If we were to go into the Chase right now, we’d be 40 behind,” Hamlin said. “We feel like we’re running well enough, we could make that up if we run the same way that we have all year. We would just like to start closer to those guys.”
“The first thing you have to do is make the Chase,” said Tony Stewart, who barely missed the postseason last year but is currently sixth in the points. “You always want to win, but this year wins mean more.”
Today’s race will be the eighth of 16 events this season for NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow. The Hendrick drivers have dominated the COT races, with Gordon winning two, Johnson two and teammate Kyle Busch one.
Hamlin has been openly critical of the COT. But his opinion on the car that will race the entire 2008 Cup season is slowly changing.
“It is still a little early to tell how successful this whole thing is going to be,” Hamlin said. “I think, for the most part, it is evolving better than I thought it would.”
