Watch Denny Hamlin's post-race interview following his second place finish in the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 ~ Martinsville. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/nascar/video/cup/2009/03/29/cup.mar.presspass.hamlin.145x93.jpgWhen the Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 ended Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, there was still plenty of daylight left.
But that didn't mean some post-race fireworks weren't expected. Reporters and television cameramen rushed to the side of Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota as it pulled onto pit road after finishing second -- again -- to race winner Jimmie Johnson, figuring Hamlin had to be hot over how Johnson had moved him out of the way to take the lead for good on Lap 485, just 15 circuits from the finish at the demanding .526-mile short track.
Hamlin climbed from the car, accepted a cold drink and a towel, wiped his face ... and actually smiled. Then he individually thanked each crew member in sight, exchanged a few calm words with crew chief Mike Ford, and turned to face the media.
He was, all in all, surprisingly calm and composed for a man who just led a race-high 296 laps and for the second consecutive week fell just short of being the guy celebrating wildly in Victory Lane.
"I'm honored to be on the race track with guys like Jimmie and Jeff [Gordon] and Tony [Stewart]," Hamlin said. "Those are the guys who are the best in the business.
"We came up short. That was short-track racing. I would've done the same thing to [Johnson] -- and if it comes back around, I will do the same. You can count on that. That's just the way it is. In Martinsville, you have to battle for every inch. I was trying to protect a spot, and he was trying to get it at the end of the race. That's just the way it goes."
“I had to nudge a lot of guys to get around them at points during the race. So it's hard for me to fault [Johnson] for what he did.” DENNY HAMLIN
Consistency rulesHamlin has -- for better or worse -- become accustomed to running up front but rarely winning races. Last year he finished third a remarkable eight times. His only win came precisely one year ago Sunday in the 2008 spring race at Martinsville, and was the fourth of a Cup career that is only now beginning to emerge from its infancy in his fourth full season.
Hamlin admitted that he hungered for the victory Sunday, especially after coming close again a week earlier while finishing second to teammate Kyle Busch at Bristol. But it was, alas, apparently not meant to be.
Ford, Hamlin's veteran crew chief, said he had no problem with the way Johnson nudged his driver out of the way during his latest trip to Victory Lane [it was Johnson's fifth win in the last six races at Martinsville].
"It's short-track racing. If you look at our car, the nose is beat off it just as bad as the back bumper. What goes around comes around," Ford said. "It came down to that was Jimmie's last shot. It got narrow down there on the bottom of the race track, and it just worked out that way. I'm sure if the roles were reversed, it would be the same story in reverse.
"We did what we had to do. We put a good race car out there, and Denny drove a good race. We had a shot to win, it just didn't pan out."
What Ford does have a problem with is all the questions about his No. 11 team falling just short of getting to Victory Lane. He particularly bristles at comparisons to the No. 18 team at Joe Gibbs Racing, a car driven by Busch that had a tough day Sunday at Martinsville, finishing 24th, but had won two of the previous three Sprint Cup Series races and has piled up 10 Cup wins over the last two seasons.
What will it take, he was asked, for Hamlin to start racking up victories with frequency akin to that of Busch?
"I'm about tired of fielding that question," Ford said. "If you look at it, it seems like people think we've had bad years or something. We haven't. We've made the Chase the last three years. Only a handful of guys can say that. Tony Stewart can't say it; Dale Earnhardt Jr can't say that. There are a lot of guys who can't say they've been as consistent as we've been the last three years.
"Guys win championships without winning races. It can be done. The thing about this team is that we're consistent. There aren't many race tracks that we go to where we aren't competitive. We're a little bit stronger on the short tracks, but the intermediates are coming around.
Everyone's package is a little bit different. A lot of guys can go out and win a bunch of races, but they fall on their faces about as much as they win. We're a little bit more even-keeled. We may not have the race wins under our belt, but the last two weeks I think we've shown that we're even close to doing that."
A new Denny?Hamlin's calm demeanor after what happened Sunday actually bodes well for the future, in Ford's opinion. It is, it seems, a new and better Denny -- more mature and better able to handle setbacks while keeping his focus solidly in the positive lane and on the future.
"I think if you look back at the last couple of Chases, we start off and we get into a couple of accidents. You look back to last year and a day like [Sunday], and we very easily could have ended up 25th," Ford said. "I think you look at that and you have to say that that's experience that Denny has picked up, and maybe a little wisdom along with it."
So the folks from the No. 11 team chose to look at the silver lining in the gathering gray skies late Sunday afternoon at Martinsville. And there were no post-race fireworks from Hamlin, who certainly has been volatile and vocal in the past when races did not go his way toward the end.
Those who expected him to be furious with Johnson for the contact that was made on Johnson's final pass were left more disappointed than Hamlin was. Well, not quite. But almost.
"It was a great race," Hamlin said of Sunday's event. "I battled with the 24 [Gordon] the same way earlier in the day. I had to nudge a lot of guys to get around them at points during the race. So it's hard for me to fault [Johnson] for what he did.
"With 20 to go, that's part of racing. It really is. It's short-track racing at its best."
The end result, and Hamlin's reaction to it, left one thinking that Hamlin's best is still in front of him. After all, he's only 28 years old, and he seems to be building toward a day when he won't be left behind so often on pit road explaining why he was good, but not quite good enough to get to Victory Lane.
"Everyone's formula is a little bit different," Ford said. "Everybody's strategy is a little bit different. And everyone's results at the end of the day are a little bit different. This is our package. We're working to get better at it. We don't want to get in a situation where we win every once in a while. We want to get to a situation where we're winning consistently."
It could happen. Hamlin is getting closer, not just on the track but in his own head. Once the mind is right, the victories shouldn't be too far behind.
