But Toyota Racing Development president Lee White says that Kyle Busch, Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, is the driver who has made this a special year for the company.
The 23-year-old has given Toyota 19 wins this season -- eight in Cup, eight in Nationwide and three in trucks.
"I would have to be extremely honest and say that Kyle Busch probably has us ahead of schedule," White said. "Even with Joe Gibbs Racing joining our ranks (last winter), no one would have believed that they would have made the transition from 12 or 13 years with another manufacturer to our brand and learned to mesh with TRD and our type of engineering support and had the type of success that they enjoyed early this season.
"Frankly, if you take Kyle Busch out of the equation, our success ratio is just about where everybody would have thought it should have been: win a couple of races, have a shot in more and, hopefully, two or three guys in the Chase. Not to take anything away from any of our drivers or any of our teams -- certainly not taking anything away from Tony (Stewart) or Denny, they're great drivers and everybody has great futures -- but Kyle has had an extraordinary year.
"I think anybody you talk to in the industry would agree that he's had an extraordinary year."
Busch easily led the regular-season points, but has stumbled out of the blocks in the Chase, falling from first to last in the 12-man playoff after the first three of 10 postseason races.
"He's had a career year, without question," White said. "But NASCAR racing, with the Chase format, timing's everything."
Asked about winning the title in Nationwide, White said he was proud of the way the Toyota teams bounced back after NASCAR cut back on the horsepower in their engines at midseason.
"I think it really speaks well for our teams that, in spite of a bit of a slap, they were still able to get past that and come back and compete with people and win races," White said. "Certainly, it's the first of many. We're going to be here for a long time and we're not here to watch, we're here to participate and, hopefully, have a shot."
CAMP SITE: A new Victory Junction Gang camp is planned for 71 acres in Wyandotte County, Kansas, not far from Kansas Speedway.
The announcement was made at the track by Kyle Petty and wife Pattie, who founded the Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses.
"As Victory Junction accepted more and more children from across the United States, we realized the need for a camping experience such as ours was far greater than one camp could serve," Pattie Petty said. "With that, we began our search in the central part of the country and an area that is philanthropically driven to serve the greater good. Kansas immediately became a haven and strong advocate for this project."
Construction of the new camp is pending project review and permitting. Like the camp in North Carolina, it will operate solely through donations and will provide a free experience for the children and their families.
NASCAR drivers have supported the charity, and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the latest to help raise money for the camp with a 10-day online auction, sponsored by Wrangler, that ends Friday. All the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Victory Junction Gang Camp.
Among the items being offered are a ride around Lowe's Motor Speedway with Junior in his No. 88 Hendrick Chevrolet. By last weekend, the best bid had already topped $15,000.
Also included in the auction are an autographed pair of Wrangler jeans and an autographed piece of a door from the car Earnhardt crashed earlier this year at Auto Club Speedway in California.
Bids can be made at Wrangler.com or eBay.com/WranglerJeans.
BAHRE LOSES BROTHER: Auto racing lost a longtime figure on Saturday when Richard Bahre, the brother of New Hampshire International Speedway founder Bob Bahre, died at 76.
In the 20 years since his brother bought the racetrack in Loudon, Richard Bahre helped develop NHIS from a small operation into one that hosts two races on NASCAR's top series.
Bahre -- who died Statesville, N.C., had been involved in auto racing for 50 years. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he fielded cars in 31 races in what is now the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
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