Denny Hamlin hears people talking about his slow start. And he hears other teams being praised for their fast start.
But in his mind, it’s too early in the season for any of it to make a difference.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said Friday after his qualifying lap. “It’s a bunch of shit, really. It’s dumb. But people need something to talk about, and for us, it’s just we’re slow starters. We’ve always been slow starters and it’s just a characteristic of our race team.”
Hamlin’s season thus far has included finishes of 17th, 29th and 19th, which puts him 21st in points heading into Atlanta.
He predicted before the season that his team would fly under the radar with average finishes early in the year as they prepared for the summer stretch run and the Chase.
But he acknowledged his frustration that those runs haven’t been as good as expected.
“It’s always frustrating, because we just won the race [at Homestead] three or four races ago,” he said. “To go from a race-winning car or a top-three car from the end of last season…look, at the end of last season, everyone has the best of everything they’ve got on the racetrack. Everything they’ve learned the whole season is what they’ve got.
“At the beginning of the season, sometimes it takes awhile for teams to get caught up with race cars, building new cars, things like that.”
Hamlin indicated that he feels it’s the same with his team. He said his cars are “the same” as they were last year, but that everyone else has picked up speed.
And regarding his comments in a USA Today diary in which he noted Toyota motors need more power?
“I just felt like Hendrick has been the standard,” he said. “It’s common knowledge to everyone that they have the best stuff. For us, I think we’re a little bit behind in that department, that’s all.”
Hamlin insisted – firmly – that he’s not making any declarations at this point in the season about anyone’s chances, and questioned those who do.
“People talk about guys that are in the top 10, top 15 in points right now [as being contenders],” he said. “They talk about them every single year, and then the next thing you know, they’re 30th at the end of the year.
“It takes us awhile to get in the swing of the season. For us, it takes awhile.”
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Comments
OH DENNY!
That’s all I got.
by Sebring88 on Mar 5, 2010 8:45 PM EST reply actions
Well, that’s something, I guess!
by Jeff Gluck on Mar 5, 2010 8:50 PM EST up reply actions
I guess I agree with him to a point. It’s really too early into the season to talk about the chase… but if they don’t get their butt in gear soon, they’ll be like Kyle last year – on the outside looking in. He might not think his first 3 races are newsworthy, but when cars tend to run well at the end of the season, they are expected to continue to run well into the beginning of the following season.
by jr88freak on Mar 5, 2010 8:51 PM EST reply actions
Denny Hamlin - Slow Start
I am not a big fan of Denny Hamlin, but I do agree with the things he is saying. People are making such a big deal about RCR resurgence and some of the other people in the top-12. I believe that half of those people in the top-12 will not be contending for the championship come time for when the Chase start. I wish people stop making such a big deal. Wait unit we get about 10 races or 13 races into the season to brag about who the players are. It is good to see RCR up there, but will it last? People (some of the media), please wait until we get to the 10th race or 13th race to talk about who are or are not doing good.
by babygirl24jg on Mar 5, 2010 8:55 PM EST reply actions
Anyone else remember how Tony Stewart didn’t do as well in the beginning of the season before he picked it up heading into the summer months. I think it’s worthy to talk about a drivers’ slow start. Because if you get too behind in the beginning races, it gets harder and harder to make it up as we get closer to the cut off. The whole becomes too deep.
by jr88freak on Mar 5, 2010 9:14 PM EST up reply actions
I agree with Denny, but I also think they’ve got to start capitalizing on things pretty quick or they could find themselves in a not so great position. I think if they still find themselves sitting in this points position after Martinsville, then there will be reason to worry.
And this year could really be the year a slow start doesn’t matter, cause in a few weeks we could be looking at a spoiler on the cars and some of the cars that are good now, may not be with the spoiler.
What Denny’s going through to start the season kind of reminds me of the RCR cars a bit last year though….struggle in qualifying and never seem to make up the ground in the race. But I think Denny’s team is still in a better position than the RCR cars were last year. I see them rebounding here pretty soon and running up front like they were at the end of the last year.
by Scrapgirl933 on Mar 5, 2010 9:18 PM EST reply actions
Okay so where's this article??
Okay, so I’ve seen the tweets and heard the trashing… but I haven’t seen this so called quote by Denny…
I think the Toyota engines are having issues – read “those other than Gibbs” but the Gibbs engines are fine. Sadly the TRD engines aren’t fairing very well thus far this year – what 5 of 7 engines blew that came from the Cali facility. Gibbs makes theirs in house but the other Toyota engines come from Cali.
Hopefully it will get better.
by Katie D on Mar 5, 2010 10:01 PM EST reply actions
Hamlin's slow start
Gotta agree with Denny on this one. Slow starts happen all the time, and the key is to make gains every week—even if they don’t always show in the finishing results.
by Scampbell622 on Mar 6, 2010 8:53 AM EST reply actions
Slow Start
Yes Denny Hamlin has a history of having a slow start so i would have to agree what he is saying. But the problem is with the way to the competition is this year will it make it tougher. As far as engine power well all drivers whine about that but look at the other to JGR teams both running up there everyone so there is no power there.
by Chris Taitt on Mar 6, 2010 1:12 PM EST up reply actions
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