Warning: Objects in this post may be the only way to successfully live through the NASCAR off-season. For best results, read rearview mirror early and often.
Driver: Denny Hamlin
Team: No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
'08 Final Standing: 8th (-470)
Best Race: Martinsville (1st)
Worst Race: Dover (43rd-place)
Season in a box: Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing too incredible are a few words that seem to summarize Denny Hamlin's 2008 Sprint Cup season.
Hamlin got his lone win of 2008 early on after the Joe Gibbs Racing switchover to Toyota in offseason when the series came to Hamlin's home state track in Martinsville, Va. Hamlin started 2nd that day and led over 80 laps in what looked like the start of something quite successful for Hamlin's 2008 campaign. Just a week earlier, Hamlin had been leading late at Bristol when a fuel pressure problem dropped him to a sixth-place finish.
The rest of the season didn't go exactly as planned after the strong finishes on the brief short-track swing. Hamlin found the Top-5 a total of 12 times -- a respectable figure -- in 2008, but bad luck and other mechanical problems nearly wiped the No. 11 out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. In fact, an irritated Hamlin said that at his team's current performance in Michigan in August, they "didn't deserve to be in the Chase."
The words lit a fire in the team as Hamlin railed off three third-place finishes in-a-row to secure a Chase spot. The No. 11 could never quite keep up with the Chase's front-runners, however, and a 38th at Kansas and a 39th at Talladega thanks to a hard crash ended his championship hopes.
Through the crystal windshield: Hamlin made quite the interesting point during December's Sprint Cup awards banquet that he will now be the oldest driver at Joe Gibbs Racing thanks to the departure of Tony Stewart. Hamlin, entering just his fourth year in the Cup competition, will have plenty of support however from teammate Kyle Busch and young gun Joey Logano.
The Virginia driver has found a great spot in the Sprint Cup garage with undoubtedly some of the best equipment available at JGR. He's got the talent to win with it and crew chief Mike Ford will be returning again to steer from the pit box.
Hamlin should easily find himself in the Chase for the Championship, but as we've learned, teammate Busch isn't the only driver at JGR that gets a little too heated under the collar at times for his own on-track good. When Hamlin controls that effectively, look for a lot more consistency.
Next up: Jeff Gordon
