FEDEX RACING EXPRESS FACTS
KANSAS SPEEDWAY

RACE INFO:
Event: LifeLock 400
Date/Time: Sept. 30, 2007 / 1 p.m. ET
Length: 1.5 miles
Shape: Tri-Oval
Banking: 15 degrees
Distance: 267 laps/400.5 miles
2006 winner: Tony Stewart
2006 polesitter: Kasey Kahne

EXPRESS NOTES:
Dover in the Rearview: A lap 203 incident with Kyle Petty put a damper on an otherwise promising Dover race for the #11 team. The 90 laps spent in the garage for major repairs negated the 61 laps Hamlin led early in the race and relegated the #11 team to a 38th-place finish. Hamlin drops to 12th in the Chase for the Nextel Cup standings heading to Kansas, and the first of five 1.5-mile tracks left on the schedule.

Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet at Kansas: Before running in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Kansas Speedway, driver Denny Hamlin will visit Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics on Thursday morning to meet with patients and deliver a $25,000 donation to the hospital on behalf of FedEx. Hamlin also will receive a special helmet designed by 16 year-old Children’s Mercy patient Michael Beeson. The helmet presented to Hamlin this week is the eighth of eleven helmets designed by children’s hospital patients and children granted wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation program as part of the 2007 FedEx “Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet” program. All eleven race-worn helmets will be auctioned off at the end of the season to benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp. (For event details and media access, please contact Jon Mason at 612-387-8780).

Hamlin at Kansas Speedway: On account of it being a track that the Nextel Cup visits only once a season, Hamlin’s experience at the 1.5-mile track is limited to two previous Cup starts. Hamlin made his Nextel Cup debut at Kansas on Oct. 1, 2005 and, after qualifying in the top ten, was forced two laps down by a cut tire before finishing 32nd. Last season, Hamlin and team suffered a speeding penalty on lap 146 and a loose wheel on lap 209 before ultimately finishing 18th.

Kansas Speedway Chassis 137 & 121: Kansas marks the fourth start of the 2007 season for Chassis 137. After posting top-20 runs at Fontana and Atlanta this spring, the most recent result for this car was a 22nd place finish at Indy. JGR 121, the workhorse in the FedEx Monte Carlo fleet, will be the back up this week. It has made six starts in 2007 and only finished outside of the top ten on one occasion.

Q&A with Denny Hamlin:
Kansas is a track that you visit only once a season. Does that present unique challenges to a team and driver?: “It may make it a little more difficult but both this #11 team and our teammates at JGR have really good notes to work from so we feel very well prepared going to pretty much any track. Clearly, Tony has been very good here and we’ve run well here in the past so equipment-wise I know we’ll be ok. As a driver, I am at the point where I am still learning a lot about the tracks we visit so every single lap, in practice or race conditions, helps a lot.”

You made your first Cup start at Kansas. What do remember about that weekend?: “I remember everything about it. The first time I qualified a Cup car was here at Kansas and my first lap was really quick, top-ten at the time, then I went for a second lap because I thought I could get more out of it and I ended up piling it in the wall. So, that is a pretty vivid Kansas memory for me. Not the best start, but we ended up alright. I tested at Kansas before the race there and I was really nervous because things were happening so fast. I was just getting comfortable in the Busch car and then they came to me and said they wanted me to test with the #11 Cup team and I wasn’t sure if I was ready. I went out and was turning good lap times but at the same time I was on the radio telling Mike (Ford) how I was just getting up to speed, asking him to give me some time, be patient with me. So no one on the crew told me that I was as fast as the other cars. They left me out there wondering, but it probably helped in the long run.”

Q&A with Crew Chief Mike Ford:
In sports, a lot of weight is given to experience when it comes to the post-season. Is this team more prepared to handle the Chase having had the experience of last season?: “It is a different mindset this year than it was last season. Last season, it was relaxed because we weren’t supposed to be there and getting in was a huge a win for the team. So, whatever the outcome, it was going to be good season for us – the Chase was a bonus. Not to say were weren’t trying to win every race and win a championship, but it was relaxed and that helped us to do very well. Going into this year’s Chase, our own personal expectations are high. External expectations are higher as well but they aren’t as high as those we’ve set for ourselves. We go in wanting to do better than we did last year. From last season we learned that we need to stay relaxed, remember that we all know how to do our jobs – we know how to race. Let’s not change anything, let’s just go race. Preparation is critical but you don’t see that at the race track as much as at the shop. Those guys don’t get enough credit for it but that is where races are won – where championships are won.”