FEDEX RACING EXPRESS FACTS
NEW HAMPSHIRE INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

RACE INFO:
Event: Sylvania 300
Date/Time: Sept. 16, 2007 / 2 p.m. ET
Length: 1.058 miles
Shape: Oval
Banking: 12 degrees
Distance: 300 laps/317.4 miles
2006 winner: Kevin Harvick
2006 polesitter: Kevin Harvick

EXPRESS NOTES:
Chasing After Richmond: After running in the top-three and leading 17 laps, Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team fell victim to a freak pit road incident Saturday night in Richmond when, during a lap 226 stop, Hamlin brushed against the kill switch on the steering wheel. The delay in restarting the car caused him to lose nearly 20 spots on pit road. With Hamlin pushing the #11 forward, and the FedEx team stellar in the pits all evening, the Richmond native clawed his way back into the top ten and settled for sixth place on the night. After the points reset, Hamlin will start the Chase for the Nextel Cup in sixth place, 50 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Hamlin at New Hampshire: Simply stated, New Hampshire International Speedway has been a very good track for Hamlin. Through a total of six Nextel Cup and Busch Series starts, Hamlin has recorded five top-five finishes and a win. For a driver and team with title aspirations, Hamlin and the #11 team are happy to return to the scene of their only 2007 win, where they gambled late in the race on a two-tire change and Hamlin then held off Jeff Gordon’s last-lap challenge to win the Lennon Tools 300 on July 1. In last season’s Chase kick off, Hamlin led four laps before finishing fourth and positioning himself for a strong Chase run. In his first Cup start at New Hampshire, Hamlin started 12th and finished sixth. He has led laps in each of three NNCS starts at Loudon.

New Hampshire International Speedway Car of Tomorrow Chassis JGR 162 and JGR 154: JGR 162 has made only two NNCS starts to date but has two solid runs to show for it. Most recently, Hamlin drove this car to a win at New Hampshire in July. Three months earlier, Hamlin led 125 laps in this car at Martinsville before a pit road incident relegated him to a third-place finish. Backup chassis 154 has enjoyed similar success with top-three finishes at Phoenix and Richmond (May) before suffering through a blown engine at Bristol just three weeks ago.

Purple Paint in New Hampshire: In honor of FedEx and the 275,000 FedEx employees and contractors around the world, the #11 FedEx Express Chevrolet will carry an entirely purple paint scheme at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend.

FedEx Express Fact: Outside of a near perfect record at Pocono, Hamlin’s average finishing position of 3.7 at New Hampshire is his best average at any track on the Nextel Cup schedule.

Q&A with Denny Hamlin:
Now that you’ve celebrated making the Chase, how do you approach the ten race shootout? “You really can’t approach a Chase race differently than you would any other race during the season. There is a lot at stake because we want to win, and it’s important to try and get the Chase off to a good start, but that doesn’t change the way you prepare your car or set strategy. I think if you are trying to push harder or do something different, that really opens the door for mistakes. We need to focus only on taking the Chase one race at a time.”

You won here in July, and have been good here in your two other Cup starts. What about New Hampshire suits you? “It’s fast so you need horsepower to take advantage of the long straights, but getting through, and off, the corner is where you win or lose at New Hampshire. I like the tracks that demand you to feel your way through the corner and New Hampshire is one of those tracks. You need to find that rhythm, hit your marks getting into the corner so you can roll through the center and get back on the gas as soon as possible for the next straight. Most of that comes down to turning a lot of laps in practice to find out what is working and what you need to change. We think we have a good set up going back but we are prepared for a whole new set of conditions. Even though we were just here a few months ago, the tracks always change from race to race.”

Is the Car of Tomorrow going to be a factor in the Chase? “I am hoping that having a handful of COT races will work to our benefit. The playing field has definitely leveled a bit from earlier in the season when it seemed like Gibbs and Hendrick had an advantage, but I still think our COT program is as good as any. We won a COT race and challenged in others. In fact we took a brand new car that hadn’t turned a single lap anywhere to Richmond and finished sixth so we now have three cars that have led laps in COT races at our disposal for the Chase.”