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[/media-credit]TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Denny Hamlin — Notes & Quotes Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 18, 2012
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing How was your car in practice? “Terrible. Not good right now, that’s for sure. Just a bad start to our weekend. Don’t have the speed, doesn’t have the feel, doesn’t have a lot of things that we need to be good right now.”
Do you approach this weekend as preparation for next week’s race? “We hope so. We want to be competitive though — we don’t just want to use it as a test session — a 100-lap test session. We’ve got some ideas of things that we’re going to work on and go from there.”
How far are you willing to push in the final laps to win the All-Star race? “I think that you do whatever it takes short of just steering into a guy and wrecking him on purpose. Would I do that? No, but I would rub a guy down the straightaway or try to get him loose or something like that. Never really just steer into him and wreck him.”
What is the difference in the line drivers are willing to cross in the All-Star race compared to a points race? “I think that the line is more gray than it is black and white when you come to this race. We get mad at guys that cause wrecks and things like that in the All-Star race, but it’s nothing that you get back at a guy for — you just maybe chew them out or something. It’s different because we know we drive on the edge every single weekend and this is the one weekend where that edge really gets tested in a lot of different ways.”
Would you like a longer stretch in the All-Star race? “Half and half — it depends on what we need at the time. It seems like we always kind of get that green flag run during the All-Star race, but the way they’ve got it broke up now and making such an emphasis on winning the segments, I think that it’s going to be important to run as hard as you can every lap.”
What is your favorite memory of the All-Star race? “I don’t know, there’s a lot of them really. I liked when Rusty Wallace spun out Darrell Waltrip — that was fun. There’s so many different ones. I remember when all the cars wrecked into turn one during the race and I remember trying to stay awake to make the start of the race and finally my parents woke me up when all the cars were getting started again. That’s all good memories and everything. It’s just a weekend as a fan, I remember really looking forward to watching the old Winston and the All-Star race.”
What do you think about your pit crew’s performance at the Pit Crew Challenge? “They’re so solid. We knew going into that night after watching the qualifying rounds that the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) was going to be, short of us, the guys to beat. It seemed like this year the 11 and the 48 kind of were a step ahead of everyone else. We knew the 48 had a little more rest and when they got that number one seed, I knew it was going to be tough on my guys. We had to do a lane swap at the end and everything like that. Our hill on that last run was going to be a tough one to climb, but they ran their fastest times of the day that last run. Going into it, if you said, ‘Will you take a 22.50 (seconds) out of switching lanes and at the end of the night?’ I would have said, ‘Yeah.’ I thought that would have won. The 48’s car, for whatever reason, pushed really well.”
What makes next weekend’s 600-mile race so difficult? “Of course attrition is always a part of it, whether it be engine or car or driver or things like that. I don’t think there’s any more difficulty, it’s just tough to keep your focus and keep you patience for a 600-mile race. There’s a lot of winners from the 600 that have gone a lap down at some point or another because the track goes through such a change from daytime to the night. It’s about being patient with your car and your competition for the first really 400 miles.”
What is the last 100 miles like of the 600? “I don’t notice it being that much different, but just it gives everyone more time to work on their car and get it better. The last 100 miles physically you’re splitting hairs — the difference between 400 to 500 and then 500 to 600. For us, it’s more patience than anything. I don’t think it’s a whole lot more physically demanding.”
