Coming into the 2011 season, all eyes were on Denny Hamlin.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had come oh-so-close to dethroning Jimmie Johnson for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship and led the list of candidates to do it yet again this year.
However, as the year went on it became clear Hamlin and the No. 11 team would be lucky to make the Chase, let alone contend for the championship. Now three races before the cut-off for the Chase, Hamlin is 14th in points and holding onto the second wild card spot thanks to his lone win at Michigan in June.
With no top-10s in the last four races and struggling to overcome communication issues with crew chief Mike Ford, Hamlin is not ready to throw the towel in just yet, but knows there is work to be done.
"I know that we've got too much talent on the pit box, on the crew, and behind the seat that we belong in the Chase," he said. "If we can get in the Chase, we can be as dangerous as anybody. If we get things going in our favor. If we just figure out the things that we need to work on."
Communication is chief among that list of things.
Hamlin admitted when the team began to struggle and things did not go their way throughout the year, he became frustrated and communication "shut off" at times. Meeting with the team after their 35th-place finish last week in Michigan, Hamlin says there is a "new game-plan" going forward.
"When things are good and you're winning races, sometimes you're almost communicating more than when things are going bad," he explained. "Which, in turn, is the opposite of what it should be. When you're struggling, you need to communicate more and more and more and more of what we need to do to get better."
Aside from the communication, how has Hamlin gone from the number one contender to just another driver trying to make the 12-driver Chase?
"For the most part it's just tough to answer," he said. "The Roush cars were not as tough last year as they are this year, that's three or four cars that were not an element that now are. I think there are a couple guys that have stepped up and gotten much better. That little bit we're off right now is being exploited by those cars that are now faster than us."
Carl Edwards has an idea what Hamlin is going through. Having a similar experience following his runner-up season in 2008, Edwards struggled mightily in 2009, calling it "massively humbling."
"To go into (2009) with such high expectations of ourselves and realize that we had fallen behind in a number of areas and it wasn't going to get back out of it. That was tough," he said. "You just have to keep going, keep digging. You can't give up. That is the trick, not giving up."
Despite saying indicating it may be good for his team to miss the Chase, Hamlin has no plans of giving up on the season just yet.
Understanding he may benefit from the new wild card format, Hamlin admits anything better than 12th in points will be an accomplishment considering their year thus far, but said "anything can happen" once the Chase happens.
"We're going to get better," he said. "We know we're going to get better. My goal when I go to these next three race tracks is to win. I wouldn't show up if I didn't feel I could win every single one of them."