Denny Hamlin
#11 FedEx Ground Toyota
Joe Gibbs Racing
Race Info:
Race: Overton’s 400
Date/Time: Sunday, July 1/ 2:30 p.m. ET
Distance: 267 Laps/400 Miles
Track Length: 1.5 miles
Track Shape: Oval
Banking: 14 degrees
2017 Winner: Martin Truex Jr.
Express Notes:
Sonoma Recap: Denny Hamlin finished 10th in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway, charging his way through the field in the #11 FedEx Express Toyota to collect his fifth top-10 finish at the 1.99-mile California road course. After battling his way inside the top-five in Stage 2, Hamlin elected not to pit with the leaders as they made scheduled green-flag stops in the segment’s closing laps. The decision allowed him to assume the race lead where he remained as the segment ended, collecting his second Stage win of the 2018 season. Due to having to pit during the subsequent Stage break, Denny lined up 20th to begin the race’s final 60-lap segment. After pitting with 20 laps left in the race, he was scored 17th, but he continued to fight his way to the front, making it to 13th with five laps remaining. During the race’s final lap, Hamlin made some aggressive moves to pass multiple competitors and break his way into the top-10.
Chicagoland Preview: The Series heads to Chicagoland Speedway for Sunday’s 267-lap Cup event. Hamlin notched his first career win at the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, IL, in 2015. He has scored four top-10 finishes in his last four starts at the Windy City track, including a fourth-place finish during last year’s Playoff race.
Delivering Laps for FedEx Cares: This season, FedEx is tying the performance of the #11 FedEx Toyota on the track to its efforts to improve road safety through a new program, Delivering Laps for FedEx Cares, by donating $111 for each lap Hamlin leads and $11,000 for each race victory to Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit working to protect kids on the road, at home and at play. FedEx will also contribute $111,000 to Safe Kids if the #11 team wins the 2018 NASCAR championship. New for the 2018 season, the Denny Hamlin Foundation will also match the total donation to Safe Kids Worldwide.
After 16 regular season races, Hamlin has led 239 laps resulting in an $26,529 donation to Safe Kids Worldwide which will ultimately be matched by the Denny Hamlin Foundation. Fans can track the total amount donated to date from the Delivering Laps for FedEx Cares program on the homepage of FedExRacing.com.
Press Kit: Download the 2018 FedEx Racing press materials at www.fedexracing.com/presskit, including bios for Denny Hamlin, Mike Wheeler and Joe Gibbs Racing leadership, program highlights and statistics.
Hamlin Statistics:
Track: Chicagoland Speedway
Races: 12
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Top-5: 3
Top-10: 6
Laps Led: 13
Avg. Start: 13.6
Avg. Finish: 15.1
Hamlin Conversation:
Will Chicago feel unusual this weekend with it not being the Playoff opener?
“It will certainly be a lot different, but it’s always a fun race. I really like Chicagoland because you can run all the way from the wall to the inside apron there. We’ll probably go back with the same notes and the same setup that we had last year and work from there, obviously with the hope of locking our spot in the 2018 Playoffs.”
