FEDEX RACING EXPRESS FACTS
UAW-DAIMLER CHRYSLER 400 – LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

RACE INFO:
Event: UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400
Distance: 267 laps/400.5 miles
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Date/Time: March 12, 2006 / 4 p.m. ET
2005 winner: Jimmie Johnson
2005 polesitter: Ryan Newman

TRACK INFO:
Length: 1.5 miles
Shape: Tri-Oval
Banking: 12 degrees

EXPRESS NOTES:
Hamlin Scores First Busch Series Win in Mexico City: Denny Hamlin made the most of the week off from the NASCAR Nextel Cup series, grabbing his first Busch Series win in the Telcel-Motorola 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. For Hamlin, who started second on Sunday afternoon, it was a fight to the finish as he held off road course specialist Boris Said through a number of late-race restarts to take the checkered flag.

Hamlin Fights For 12th at California: In his last Cup race on Feb. 26, Hamlin battled back at the end of the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway to record a 12th place finish at the 2.0 mile track. Despite handling issues that hurt the #11 FedEx Chevy throughout the afternoon and a late-race spin at the entrance to pit road, Hamlin fought to get back on the lead lap, then made up several places over the final laps of the race to finish 12th.

2006 Points: Thanks to Hamlin’s late race surge and 12th place finish at California, the FedEx Racing team moved up eleven places in the points standing and sits in 20th heading to Las Vegas. Despite opening the season with a 30th place finish in the Daytona 500, Hamlin finds himself only 19 points out of 15th place and only 59 points out of a spot in the top ten.

Rookie Race: Two races into the 2006 season and the rookie race appears it will be as competitive as expected with three rookies currently running in the top-20 in points. Hamlin is currently fourth in the Raybestos Rookie Contender standings with 16 points.

Hamlin at Las Vegas: This will be Hamlin’s first race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a NASCAR Nextel Cup car. His previous experience at the 2-mile track includes one Busch Series start in 2005 where he recorded 12th- place finish. Hamlin tested for two days at LVMS in January.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Chassis JGR 121/JGR 115: The DiamlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be the first Nextel Cup race for chassis #JGR 121. The car performed well during testing at LVMS on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 with JGR teammates Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley, posting solid top-20 times throughout. The back up at Las Vegas will be JGR 115 which Hamlin drove to a seventh-place finish at Texas on Nov. 6, 2005.

First Run for FedEx Freight Car: Hamlin will debut another FedEx Racing paint scheme when the FedEx Freight car takes the track this weekend in Las Vegas. Like the FedEx Express and FedEx Kinko’s cars that ran at Daytona and California, respectively, the FedEx Freight car sports an all-black scheme. 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 Visits FedEx Express Hub in Oakland: Denny Hamlin made a pit stop at the FedEx Express hub in Oakland before heading to California Speedway two weeks ago. The Oakland hub is the fourth largest FedEx Express hub in the U.S., and the 1700 employees handle an average of 238,000 packages a day. While there, Hamlin toured the facility and met with employees for autographs and pictures.

QUOTES:
Hamlin on Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “Like California, this is a track that I don’t have any Cup race experience at. We tested here at the end of January and, in addition to giving me the opportunity to turn a lot of laps, we feel we made a lot of progress on our setups for the intermediate tracks. As an organization I think we will be much more competitive this season than last, and that showed last weekend at California where Tony was unlucky not to be fighting for a win at the end, J.J. posted a top ten and I just missed a top-ten finish."

On Pulling Double Duty: “Running both series at tracks where I have limited or no Cup experience has been really helpful so far. Even though the cars are very different, the experience of running the track gives me much more confidence come race day for the Cup cars. I know it helped at California and I expect the same this weekend in Las Vegas.”