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DENNY HAMLIN
RACE INFO:
EXPRESS NOTES: “This will be our fourth hospital visit of the season and I really enjoy the opportunity to visit these kids and share some everything I love about racing and NASCAR with them. On the last three visits, a patient has designed a helmet for to wear that weekend, in their town, and that’s a really cool way to support them, and also a way to take them to they track with us for the weekend. I can’t thank Shianne enough for taking the time to design my helmet and I promise her I will do my best out there and try to make her and everyone at the hospital proud.” Hamlin’s Chicagoland Experience: This will be Hamlin’s first start at Chicagoland in a Nextel Cup car. He has one start in the Busch Series, starting 18th and finishing 15th in the 2005 USG Durock 300 on July 9, 2005. Hamlin Success on 1.5-mile Tracks: Since taking the wheel of the #11 FedEx Chevrolet in Oct. of 2005, Hamlin has excelled on 1.5-mile tracks. In eight starts on 1.5-mile tracks, Hamlin has scored five top-ten finishes and recorded a fourth place finish at Texas this spring. His average finishing position is 14.4 and his two lowest finishes (Kansas 10/05, Homestead 11/05) came after qualifying accidents forced him into backup cars for race day. 2006 Points: Despite the 17th-place finish at Daytona, Hamlin and the #11 team gained a spot in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup standings heading to Chicago. Hamlin currently sits 40 points behind Kevin Harvick in ninth and 453 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. 2006 Rookie Race: Hamlin was third highest finishing rookie at Daytona but continues to lead the Raybestos Rookie standing over second-place Clint Bowyer. Hamlin’s leads the rookie standings by 28 points (194-166). Chicago Chassis JGR 137/092: The #11 FedEx Team will roll out car JGR 137 this weekend at Chicago. Hamlin drove this car to a fourth place finish at Texas Motor Speedway on April 9, 2006 and then recorded a 12th-place finish at Michigan in July. It also served as a backup for the Coca-Cola 600. Backup chassis JGR 092 raced to a 12th-place finish at California in February and has served as a backup on six occasions. FedEx Kinko’s Car at Chicago: Hamlin’s #11 Chevrolet will sport the FedEx Kinko’s colors for the fourth time this season this weekend at Chicago. Throughout the season, Hamlin and FedEx Racing will feature schemes representing four of the FedEx operating companies; FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight and FedEx Kinko’s Hamlin on Chicago: “This is a great track, a track that I enjoyed running in the Busch Series and I feel might better suit my driving style in the Cup car. It’s very fast but it allows for side-by-side racing and that makes for an exciting race. It’s also shorter than some of the races we have run recently so track position will be critical. You need to be able to take advantage of any opportunities to pass and the team needs to be really good on pit road. Chicagoland might set up a little like some of the other tracks that are the same length, but each of these tracks have very specific characteristics so to lump them together doesn’t do them justice.” Hamlin on the Joe Gibbs Racing Intermediate Program: “JGR has put a lot of time and effort into the intermediate program and if you look the performance of all three teams, I think it’s safe to say it’s paying off. We spend a lot of time and put in a lot of effort in testing to prepare these cars for these tracks and we have been good off the truck at most of these intermediate races and that allows us to really fine-tune the car during practice to get the car where we want it in race trim. “
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