Hamlin: Johnson still the favourite

Chase leader Denny Hamlin believes reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is still the favourite to win this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the final event heading into the championship play-off, which was his sixth victory of the year, and beat Johnson to the top spot of the standings for the deciding final 10 races.

Last year Hamlin was one of the strongest drivers in the Chase, taking top three finishes - including two wins - in six out of the 10 events. However two engine failures and a crash caused him three non-finishes that ruined his chances of contending for the title in the season finale.

Despite the likes of four-time champion Jeff Gordon picking the 29-year-old as favourite to beat Johnson, Hamlin does not think he is the target rivals will be aiming at from Sunday at Loudon.

"The #48 [Johnson] is definitely the favourite, with the #29 [Kevin Harvick] right behind him, in my eyes," said Hamlin. "One has shown the consistency to win the championship this year and the other has shown that when it comes to game time, he is ready to play. In my eyes, we haven't won one yet. We're 0-for-4, so it's time for us to step up."

However Hamlin does not deny that this season is probably his best chance ever to win his first NASCAR title. Besides Johnson, Hamlin is the only driver who has been in the Chase in every championship he has entered since the format was implemented.

"We set up our team at the beginning of the year to bring out our best race cars in September and late August and we've done that," said Hamlin. "The last three weeks, and including this week, our car has speed, and that goes a long way. It makes the drivers look good. It makes everything look good because you've executed a game plan and I feel like we've done that.

"The wins in the first part of the season, to me, were almost flukey in the sense that we didn't expect it and circumstances worked out and we won a bunch of races. But, we didn't have our best stuff at the race track.

"This is the point where we see where we stack up with our competition over the next few weeks and from what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, it looks like our stuff is going to be pretty competitive."

Hamlin, who was affected by an injured knee due to a torn ligament at the beginning of the year, has shown great speed at all kinds of tracks this season, taking wins on both short and intermediate ovals.

Two of his six wins this year came at Martinsville and Fontana, tracks that he will visit once again during the Chase. He also dominated at Atlanta two weeks ago until an engine failure put him out of the race.

"I think the biggest thing is we're competitive everywhere, competitive as in we can win races anywhere," Hamlin said. "We've shown we can win races and that means we've been up front a lot during the course of this season.

"For as many wins as we've had, we've had second and third-place finishes as well. That means we've been up front a lot during the season and that's what it's going to take to win the championship - a low average finish and making sure you have everything in line and prepared in case something does happen.

"Even if you have a bad race or two, if you consistently run in the top two to three positions every week and put yourself out there to possibly win a lot of races, I think you'll be a contender."

Hamlin's best finish in the Sprint Cup came in his rookie season, when he was third in the final standings.

Baggies snub Valero bidGordon: Wins vital to title challenge

Gordon: Wins vital to title challenge

Jeff Gordon believes winning for the first time this year will be vital to his chances of contending for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup title.

The four-time champion, who is already safely in the championship play-off that starts next week, has been win-less for the past 54 races, dating back to April last year.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver sits currently second in the standings, but is expected to drop outside the top five once the points are reset next week when the Chase starts at Loudon.

The 12 drivers in the championship hunt will start the final 10 races with 5000 points plus 10 more for every win thus far, of which Gordon has none heading into Saturday's race at Richmond.

He believes that he will need to win for the first time soon as he reckons it is not realistic to aim at this year's title without a single victory.

"Maybe Jimmie [Johnson] or Denny [Hamlin] who have 50 points up on everybody else, I think it's possible for them not to win races because they already have a big head start, or at least a decent-sized one. But I think for us, I think we're going to have to win," Gordon said.

"I'm not giving up on it yet. We haven't won yet this year. It's not from a lack of effort... A few things go our way and what is it that makes that happen, other than putting fast race cars out there on the track and executing well?

"I still think we could have won three or four races up to this point, if not more already this season, and I can't see why we can't still win multiple races before this year is out."

Gordon has yet to win a title under the Chase format, having won for the last time in 2001 under the old cumulative points system. He still believes consistency to be key in the final 10 races, and reckons that is of his team's strengths, along with the improved communication he has within his group. However he insists that only a win will get his side of the garage to perform at championship level in the next 10 weeks.

"While we haven't won this year, and don't get me wrong, a win would really add so much to our Chase hopes and our championship hopes, just because it gets you to that next level," said Gordon.

"But we've got to live up to our strengths and our strengths are that we never give up... I think our communication, especially between [crew chief] Steve [Letarte] and myself is definitely improved and so that has a lot to do with why we're stronger and why we're better.

"And I think we're probably the most consistent team out there. That's always been one of our strengths and certainly always been one of mine and why the old points system was so good for me. I approach it the same way with 10 races to go."

Gordon has finished second twice this year, the last time at Richmond in May.

Harvick hails best ever title chancePellegrini salutes Ronaldo

Johnson has tough Chase start

Jimmie Johnson had one of his worst starts to a Sprint Cup series playoff, after finishing just 25th on Sunday in the Chase opener at Loudon.

The reigning champion had an eventful race right from the first few laps as rivals made it tough for him to move up in the order from his 25th starting spot. Despite that, he eventually managed to break into the the top five before completing the first third of the scheduled distance, looking set for a strong start to his title bid.

However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver, who celebrated his 35th birthday this week, was in for a troubled second half of the race as he was unable to keep making similar progress, instead struggling to remain in the top ten and narrowly avoiding a couple of incidents on restarts.

On lap 221, Johnson spun when he made contact with Kyle Busch after trying not to hit Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton, who came together ahead of him. He dropped down to 24th in the order after stopping for repairs, tyres and fuel, despite escaping major damage to his car.

But as he seemed to start recovering from his spin, Johnson suddenly returned to the pits a few laps later due to a suspected loose wheel, the unscheduled stop putting him a lap down on the leaders and completely out of contention for a solid finish.

"We were kind of in the eye of the storm on those restarts," Johnson said. "Our car's strong suit was not on the first three or four laps and it made me a little vulnerable. Definitely not the way we wanted things to start, for sure.

"There are still nine races left, we did everything we could and we'll show up next week and do all we can then and hopefully we'll rebound and gain some points on those guys."

Following Sunday's race, the reigning champion is down from second to seventh in the standings, 92 points behind leader Denny Hamlin.

Only in 2006 he kicked off the Chase with a worse result, finishing 39th and emerging ninth from Loudon in the playoff standing, 139 points behind the leader. However, he went on to recover over the following nine races to claim his maiden Sprint Cup title in the season finale.


Harvick hails best ever title chancePellegrini salutes Ronaldo

Hamlin disputes Bowyer's defence

Denny Hamlin has hit out at Clint Bowyer and his team, slamming the Richard Childress driver's suggestions for why his Loudon winning car failed a NASCAR technical inspection.

While speaking to the media on Friday morning, Bowyer not only defended his team's case, but also hinted at issues with both Jimmie Johnson's and Hamlin's cars during the post-race inspection at Loudon, saying the Joe Gibbs driver's #11 Toyota had to be checked twice for height measurements before being given the okay by officials.

Hamlin, who finished second behind Bowyer in the event, said it was a "pretty standard" practice to allow a second check of the car's height after finishing the race and claimed his car was not found to be outside NASCAR's specifications, unlike Bowyer's winning Chevrolet.

"Our cars did have to go through twice and I'm just not sure whether it was [to inspect] the front or the back so I can't be 100 per cent correct," said Hamlin.

"Those cars get extremely, extremely hot and when they do they either settle down or they settle high. That's what that grace period is for and they let you go back through again to make sure because that is something that is an issue when the cars get hot.

"Our car came back and it was correct, but it wasn't built incorrect and that's one thing that their car was: built incorrectly."

Hamlin called Bowyer's argument that the magnitude of the rules violation on his car was not enhancing performance a "crock" and believes that his rival was simply caught after being warned by officials at Richmond, were Bowyer's car came too close to the tolerances set by the rules.

"You can talk about how small the thing was off and you can really try to say that 60 thousandths didn't help [Bowyer] perform any better - that is a crock," said Hamlin. "Let me tell you something, that helps a lot. I know when we gain five points of downforce our car runs a tonne better.

"NASCAR has been very, very lenient I feel like on this car and they've given those guys chances. It's not Richmond.

"I think that they should just be happy that they're in the Chase at this point. They were warned and they were warned before Richmond. Everyone in the garage knows that. They're the ones who wanted to press the issue and get all they could to make sure they got in the Chase.

"They got in it and then they were busted. They kept going with it."

The Chase leader said last Sunday at Richmond his team had "the fastest legal car" at Loudon but supported NASCAR's consistency on not taking the win away from Bowyer. However he expects all the unfolding controversy to have an impact not only on the #33 team but also on Bowyer's Richard Childress Racing team-mates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, both also title contenders in the play-off this year.

"The more they reel the other teams in, the better off our team's going to be," said Hamlin. "It's going to affect the #29 [Harvick], the #31 [Burton] and the #33 [Bowyer]. I think the only difference is the #33 won the race so he went to the tech centre.

"It's just one of those things where I think our team is very strong and we do it, I feel like, the right way. Sometimes that makes to where our performance is behind at times, but you know what, we're going to be 'green' [legal] all the time."

Hamlin also disputed RCR's claim about the tow truck causing damage to Bowyer's car and causing it to fail NASCAR's inspection this week. He said that a few weeks ago at Atlanta after his car suffered an engine failure it was towed back to the pits and although the trunk was "destroyed" according to Hamlin, the car was still within tolerances on inspection.

He says that even if Bowyer's car was outside the box by 60 thousandths of an inch, NASCAR had to draw the line at some point.

"There has to be a point where it's black and white. It's no longer grey," said Hamlin. "If [NASCAR] let them get away with this 60 thousandths of an inch then when do you stop, when do you break it and say, 'now we have to penalise'? There has to be a point in which they say, 'this is it, this is the tolerance, if you go past it, you're in trouble.'

"If they let him go, then they're just going to open up the whole field to let them do whatever they want.

"That's why some teams choose to get closer to that line than others - because there are things that happen out on the race track. There are variables that happen during the race that could make you be wrong, but you're taking that risk.

"If you're going to go out on the race track and take the risk of 'I can't afford to get one bump or my car's going to be illegal', that's a risk that ain't worth taking. That's why we don't do it with our organisation."

Following his words in front of the media, Hamlin posted on his Twitter page that he has no hard feelings against Bowyer despite his comments.

"FYI I have nothing against Bowyer. I like him as a driver and person. He didn't build the cars so I feel bad for him," Hamlin wrote.

Pellegrini salutes RonaldoChildress disputes NASCAR’s ruling

Childress disputes NASCAR's ruling

Richard Childress says his team will appeal against NASCAR's ruling on the legality of Clint Bowyer's car, claiming it was built to the rules specification.

Bowyer and his team were heavily penalised with points deductions, suspensions and a fine after officials deemed that their winning car from Loudon was not within the tolerances set by the NASCAR rulebook regarding the position of the bodywork in reference to the chassis on the rear end.

The Richard Childress driver took victory in the Chase opener after leading the most laps, but he gambled on fuel strategy in the closing stages and eventually saved enough fuel to make it to the end, while rivals Tony Stewart and Jeff Burton failed to do so despite running on the same sequence.

Bowyer actually ran out of fuel following a celebratory burnout and had to be towed to Victory Lane by a service truck that pushed the #33 Chevrolet from the rear bumper. According to Childress, this and the car being hit by others on the cool down lap, may be the reason for it ending up failing a detailed inspection undertaken by NASCAR this week at its Research and Development facility.

Childress says his team will go the final instances if needed in order to prove that it did not build the car outside NASCAR's box, following a warning received the previous week regarding the machine Bowyer raced at Richmond. This Chevy was found to be close to being outside the mandated tolerances on the same area where the Loudon car was ruled illegal.

"RCR has a long-standing reputation of integrity on and off the race track," said Childress in a statement. "We pride ourselves on working within the rules established by the sanctioning body.

"NASCAR informed us after the Richmond race that we were very close to their maximum tolerances. They also told us they were going to take our New Hampshire car to the NASCAR Technical Centre after that race.

"It doesn't make any sense at all that we would send a car to New Hampshire that wasn't within NASCAR's tolerances. I am confident we fixed the area of concern and the New Hampshire car left the race shop well within the tolerances required by NASCAR.

"We feel certain that the cause of the car being out of tolerance by sixty thousandths of an inch, less than 1/16 of an inch, happened as a result of the wrecker hitting the rear bumper when it pushed the car into winner's circle.

"The rear bumper was also hit on the cool down lap by other drivers congratulating Clint on his victory. That's the only logical way that the left-rear of the car was found to be high at the tech centre. We will appeal NASCAR's ruling and take it all the way to the NASCAR commissioner for a final ruling, if need be."

Childress' appeal would mean six-race suspensions handed to Bowyer's crew chief Shane Wilson and car chief Chad Haney could be deferred for now as well as a $150.000 fine issued to Wilson. However NASCAR has clarified that the points penalty remains in place.

Hamlin maintains Chase leadGuardiola fined for ref rant

Hamlin maintains Chase lead

Denny Hamlin remained in the lead of the Sprint Cup series playoff following a strong second-place finish on Sunday's Chase opener at Loudon.

The 29-year-old, who led the standings for the first time in his career heading into the start of the title battle this weekend, drove a great race of recovery after being turned around more than halfway through the race by title contender Carl Edwards.

The Roush Fenway racer made contact with Hamlin's Toyota, sending him into a spin on lap 213 of 300, but the Joe Gibbs racer managed to avoid hitting the wall, while being lucky of not getting collected by other cars, as he was running in the top-five at the time.

"I was really glad we just didn't get plowed by the entire field," said Hamlin. "Obviously we spun in front the entire field at that point. First thing I asked is how many cars is on the lead lap because I wanted to see how bad our day was going to be

"When we restarted 22nd, I immediately set a goal and said, let's finish top 15 and a few things happen and it was like, crap, let's get a top eight and then top 6, holy cow, we can win this thing. It was one of those days, our car, we just made a heck of a charge at the end."

Hamlin was able to recover from the incident and he quickly made progress while running on a safer fuel strategy than some ahead of him. As the lap-count faded he started to put the pressure on, closing on the leaders who were trying to save enough to make it to the end.

With ten laps remaining he was able to get up to third place, as he continued to shorten the gap to leaders Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer. In the end, the tank of the Stewart-Haas Chevy of his former Gibbs' teammate ran empty, allowing Bowyer to take the win ahead of Hamlin's #11 Toyota.

"The 33 [Bowyer] had a really good car today, the 1 [McMurray], the 14 [Stewart]," said Bowyer. "Those three cars I felt like were the best cars all day. We never really got to show where our car was at. As soon as we got to the Top 3, is when we got spun.

"We clawed and scratched our way to the front all day to get in position with 80 to go to go for a win. Luckily, it's a double-edged sword, it made us come in [the pits], we had to get fuel and it gave us the fuel for the end. Typically, our Toyota gets really good gas mileage, so I knew we were going to be fine on fuel right there at the end.

"Top 6 was where I wanted to leave this day, and so first mission accomplished."

Following Sunday's race Hamlin edges Sunday's winner Bowyer by 35 points in the Chase standing.

Hamlin surprised by early successHammers lead Barrera chase

Patrick has 'humbling' runs at Dover

Danica Patrick continued her steep learning curve in NASCAR taking a top 10 finish in the Pro Series East race and 35th in the Nationwide Series event at Dover this weekend.

The IndyCar star competed on Friday afternoon in the Pro race, starting 13th, leading the race for a few laps and finishing sixth after contact when she restarted from the front of the field dropped her down the order.

Patrick took the 155-lap race as a warm up for Saturday's Nationwide event, as both series use similar cars, although the Pro is a level down the NASCAR ranks.

She was happy following her first race of the weekend, although conditions inside the car were not ideal as she ran without the proper ventilation that she's used to in her Nationwide car.

"I know I learned a lot for [the Nationwide] race and that was the point," Patrick said after Friday's event. "I learned a lot, especially about restarts. I learned about closing rates.

"I learned how to set people up here and I learned about the timing of everything. I didn't have a back blower and the helmet blower seemed to be blowing hot air. I was pretty star-star-star hot."

In the Nationwide event Patrick didn't fare as well, struggling with a poor qualifying despite running well in practice. From 42nd on the grid she was unable to make much progress while fighting handling issues, dropping a lap down on the leaders as soon as lap 17.

On lap 70 of 200, and while running two laps down already, the right front tyre on her Chevrolet gave up and Patrick hit the wall hard, forcing her to drive to the garage for lengthy repairs. Though she came back on track nearly 100 laps later to finish 35th in her seventh Nationwide race.

Patrick admitted that she still has to learn more lessons on how to set up her car for a race before being able to move up to the next level. She says the fact that her apprenticeship is taking place in the public eye doesn't make things any easier.

"I don't know what I need out of the car to be good in the race," said Patrick. "I know what I need for one lap to feel good, but that doesn't mean it's going to be good for 70 or 80 laps. So, even on that last run out there which was 30 or so laps, we freed [the car] up and went out there and started feeling a little loose, and it kind of settled in and I was pushing by the end.

"How loose does it have to be when you start to have a good end? I don't know if that contributed to the right front blowing out in the first run or not, but it got to the point that there was so much push, it was shattering. I know now from experience that when you have a vibration and when the car doesn't want to turn it's probably losing pressure and you should back it on down.

"Lessons learned, and they're not fun lessons because everybody is watching so it makes it even harder but we'll get this car to the front by the end of the year. We'll figure it out."

Even before her weekend started, Patrick had already admitted how humbling her NASCAR transition has been as she has had to learn to cope with bellow-par results while she figures out the nuances of stock car racing.

"Mostly it's just been emotional because I've had to deal with not having as good results as I would have liked," said Patrick. "IndyCar has been a bit of a tough season. I've had probably some of my best races I've ever had, but I've also had some mediocre ones.

"NASCAR has been a humbling experience itself. For me, it's been more emotional than anything. I enjoy being busy, I like it. I'm lucky to be busy. Not every driver gets to be busy, and it's all for good reason. It's part of what I signed up for and I'm enjoying it."

Patrick will return to the Nationwide Series next month at Fontana, which will be the first venue she has competed at for a second time this year.