Found this awesome interview with Denny on joegibbsracing.com and wanted to share it with you. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I love his interviews!• Denny Hamlin earned the second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) win for Toyota in today’s race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. The Chesterfield, Virginia-native also earned his career-first win at the half-mile short track.
Can you talk about your win?
“Finally! The curse is over I hope. We had such bad luck over these last two weeks. It finally feels good to come here and get a win in front of the hometown fans. I can’t wait -- this is a sign of things to come, I believe.”
Is this the biggest win of your career?
“Without a doubt and to see all my fans here wearing my gear in the stands -- that means a lot to me. A lot of these people traveled from my home town to come watch me race here. For these fans for sticking it out -- it’s amazing to have the support that we have from these race fans. They are the reason that we’re here -- to weather through it one way or another. This whole FedEx team did a great job getting me off pit road when it counted. We just got it all together finally.”
Can you talk about the last pit stop that helped put you out front?
“We didn’t take tires there so those guys were on newer tires than what we were so we decided to just take fuel and called the tires off right at the last minute. Our car was good on the long run and that’s what counted.”
What happened early in the race that put you behind?
“A dumb driver mistake pitting when we were leading right there -- I thought more guys were going to pit behind me, but we motored back to the front. We didn’t do it with any help from cautions or anything like that -- just bided our time. We made some great adjustments on the car -- this was definitely not a race-winning car when we started this race, but Mike Ford (crew chief) did a great job adjusting on it and everyone on this team for not giving up -- finally back in victory lane.”
How emotional is this win for you here at Martinsville?
“It’s very emotional -- you don’t come here that often and have opportunities to win races and I felt like we’ve been very close here in the past. We’ve run second and third and just not had the car to win at the end. We timed it perfectly -- we got to the front when it counted and made the right adjustments to the car. Everyone did a great job adjusting the car and just had some breaks go our way there at the end.”
What role did the weather play in the race for you today?
“It was good from our standpoint -- it wasn’t very hot in there. We had some long runs and had some short runs so it was pretty easy from our perspective, but you have to give props to all the fans for sticking around and watching this race.”
Were you worried about Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton catching you at the end?
“I thought we were too far ahead and I really started slowing down and making sure I was hitting my lines there at the end. We had really been hard on the tires to try to hold off the 31 (Jeff Burton) when he came on the charge. I just took my time and tried to do everything I could so that if he made a run on me I would have a little left. I was just watching in that mirror and made sure that I kept a safe distance.”
How slick were your tires at the end of the race?
“It was very slick and we didn’t hardly have anything left. I’m sure our tires are worn down to the cords, but that’s what we love as race drivers -- to have a tire that wears out. This one definitely did and we have to thank Goodyear for coming with such a great tire because we want to run fast for a couple laps and then let the tire drop off. Then we can start slipping and sliding because that’s when we can make passes -- we could do that today.”
Where will you put the clock?
“I don’t have a place, but I’ll probably put it back home in Virginia -- that’s where it belongs. Probably in the house I grew up in. I remember sitting there many times wondering if I would ever get one. Now that I have one, I will be putting it there.”
Did you have any run-ins with any of the older drivers as you learn how to fill that role, and how do you learn how to have respect and still show well for your boss out there at the same time?
“Well, it's a balancing act. I mean you want to be aggressive at times, but it just seems like getting away with being aggressive around some guys a little bit more than others. But you definitely try to set an example for some of the rookies that are coming in of how to race. I feel like I've done a good job of trying to stay out of trouble, avoiding, you know, contact with other drivers throughout my career. Other than that one deal with Kyle (Petty). Other than that, it's been pretty easy. Everyone's pretty much gave a lot of room to each other. Kind of went through a segment there in the race where, you know, everyone was kind of running into each other and it kind of put a damper on us.
But seemed like our car really performed in the long run, and, you know, that's where we beat those guys.”
How has the start of your season been with being disciplined and having to learn humility?
“It's been difficult. I mean, it's hard to be patient. When you get so close to winning so many races and something bad happens or, you know, things just don't work out in your favor at the end and you end up losing a win, it's tough to maintain confidence. It's tough -- your self-esteem starts going down. It takes its toll on you -- last week was just like how many times do we have to go through this. Because the previous week in Atlanta I felt like, you know, as we got to second behind Kyle (Busch) we had power steering issues. So I felt like we had a chance to probably win three in a row here, but just the first two races just had a lot of problems. A lot of thanks go the guy at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) to help support us at Joe Gibbs Racing to try to get our issues worked out. They don't have to -- those are issues within our race team that we had. For them to kind of take a lead role and say that they would do whatever it took to help us fix the problems -- that goes a long way. And that is what you look for in a manufacturer from those guys. And I couldn't be prouder to be with them.”
Do you go into Texas now with enough momentum that you can quit worrying about winning and how do you think that's going to carry going forward?
“You definitely start to have doubts. When things don't go your way and you hear it from the veterans that have been around the sport for 10, 20 years, if you just keep having fast race cars eventually it's all going to turn around. This bad luck's been happening seems like for over a year. When the Car of Tomorrow first came out at the beginning of last year, we had a position to win five or six races easily and just things never worked out for us.”
There were a lot of people in this race who have very little experience on a track like this. How did they do?
“I thought everyone did a pretty good job for the most part, especially the new guys. The open-wheel guys, I felt like they did a great job coming here and being respectful of the leaders at times. It's just really tough to have the lap cars on the inside line here. It's very tough. I would almost vote to have, somewhere like Bristol and those tracks, the lap cars be put to the outside because it's much easier. It causes more wrecks -- the inside line is definitely preferred on the fastest groove. Those guys are on the inside line because they're not as fast as the leaders. So then you have kind of a conflict of positioning when you have slower cars in the faster groove. I think they did a good job of holding their lines and I really had no issues with them. I've watched them with other guys and it seemed like they were very respectful of the track position and knowing where they were on the racetrack -- I definitely applaud them for that.”
Why did you race with your visor up today?
“I couldn't see much out of my windshield anyway because of the mist and I had a darker shield on. On the shorter tracks for some reason where it's very, very line sensitive I like to be focused. You have too many layers of windshield in between and things start to get disoriented. So I feel like if I have a clear shot of knowing where I'm going to have a better chance of hitting my marks. Just seems like on these short tracks I run with my visor up. Probably not the safest thing -- it works.”
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