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HAMLIN, NO. 11 TEAM TAKING MOMENTUM INTO 2010

When Denny Hamlin walks on to the Wynn Las Vegas stage during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony on Friday, Dec. 4, he’ll be celebrating a season that delivered four race wins and fifth in the final point standings.

Being a part of the star-studded awards banquet is a great way for any driver to end his year, but for Hamlin and every member of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing FedEx Toyota Camry team, the question they’ll be asking themselves Saturday morning is: What do we need to do to be even better in 2010?

The 2009 campaign was Hamlin’s fourth full season in the Sprint Cup, and the 29-year-old Chesterfield, Va., native established personal bests with those four race victories and 15 top-five finishes. He also finished in the top-10 20 times, matching a total he first achieved as a rookie in 2006.

What was especially encouraging looking ahead to 2010 was how Hamlin, crew chief Mike Ford and the rest of the No. 11 crew stepped up and gained added momentum as the season wore on.

Hamlin completed NASCAR’s 26-race regular season with a convincing victory on his home track, leading 299 of 400 laps to win at Richmond International Raceway. He then opened the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup with a runner-up finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. And over the second half of the Chase, Hamlin was money, winning at Martinsville Speedway and then ending the year by finishing second at Texas Motor Speedway, third at Phoenix International Raceway and capping the year off by scoring a resounding victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida.

Add it all up, and Hamlin finished with three victories, two runner-up finishes and seven top fives in the final 11 races of 2009.

During that stretch, the FedEx Camry was the only car to consistently be able to run with four-time champion Jimmie Johnson. That has the 29-year-old driver and his team already looking ahead to next season, and what they have to do to deliver a fourth team championship to JGR and the first for Toyota.

“We've surprised a lot of people with our performance at our race tracks this year, and we've been a really good race team on all different types of race tracks,” says Hamlin. “And I think it just shows that we're starting to come into our own as a race team and perform well everywhere.”

No one knows that more than JGR team president J.D. Gibbs, who spotted Hamlin’s talent when he was wheeling late models around the short tracks of the Southeast.

“I think what we've seen and learned is how these guys have matured and are really taking a leadership role now, Denny within the sport and Mike within our shop, so the future is exciting for us,” says Gibbs. “Both those guys work well together. They're quiet, they're not going to talk a lot about stuff; they just kind of get it done. That's what encourages me coming up to the next couple years for JGR. Our future is really exciting. Denny is our old man at 29.”

What Ford has noticed most is Hamlin’s maturity. And the time the two of them have spent together since 2006 has allowed them to shrug off the frustrations and setbacks that are inevitable in racing and grow into a force to be reckoned with.

“I think the mature teams that have worked together to really focus on the non-trivial problems that you're faced with over the course of a season are going to be the guys that continue to win,” says Ford. “I think everyone being on the same page, being able to work through problems, it was a lot easier to make gains during the season and during races with Denny and myself being on the same page pretty much every week.”

And so now it’s on to 2010, and Hamlin’s already gotten busy. He was due some minor arthroscopic knee surgery the day before Thanksgiving and has been using Twitter (twitter.com/Dennyhamlin) to stay abreast of the issues and concerns of his race fans.

But most of all, he’s already thinking about what he has to do to become the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.

“I feel like through the season I've gotten better,” says Hamlin. “I'm figuring out what I need to make my race car better. Mike is starting to figure it out. We're getting on the same page now, figuring out everything we need to be good at racing. For example, one thing we're going to have to improve on next year is qualifying, so we’ll work on that. I think this Chase has just made us stronger, because now I think everyone is focused and everyone is fired up about next year knowing that we're one of the few guys that can run with that 48 (Johnson) every single week.”

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