Denny Hamlin Express Notes - Texas

RACE INFO:
Event: Dickies 500
Date/Time: Nov. 6, 2007 / 3:30 p.m. E.T.
Length: 1.5-mile
Shape: Quad-Oval
Banking: 24 degrees
Distance: 334 laps/501 miles
2006 winner: Tony Stewart
2006 polesitter: Brian Vickers

EXPRESS NOTES:

Water Stings Hamlin at Atlanta: A decision to stay out under caution during the final laps of the Bass Pro Shops 500 looked to have set Hamlin up for a shot at the win last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, water in the fuel that had earlier caused the #11 problems struck again at the most inopportune time – just as the race went back to green. Stuck at the start finish line, Hamlin had no option but to hold his line and hope the cars behind him would make it safely by. The great number did clear him without incident but Hamlin eventually suffered heavy contact when Martin Truex Jr., caught up in the commotion, found the rear bumper of the #11. After a push to pit road from teammate J.J. Yeley, Hamlin restarted and took the checkered flag in 24th. The result drops Hamlin two spots to tenth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Local Children’s Hospital Patient Designed Hamlin’s Texas Helmet: Before running in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, driver Denny Hamlin will visit Children’s Medical Center to meet with patients and deliver a $25,000 donation to the hospital on behalf of FedEx. Hamlin also will receive a special helmet designed by nine year-old Children’s Medical Center patient, John Garcia. The helmet presented to Hamlin this week is the eighth of eleven helmets designed by children’s hospital patients and children granted wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation program as part of the 2007 FedEx “Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet” program. All eleven race-worn helmets will be auctioned off at the end of the season to benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp. (For event details and media access, please contact Jon Mason at 612-387-8780).

Hamlin at Texas: Texas Motor Speedway has been very good to Hamlin and the #11 team. Through four Cup starts, Hamlin is averaging better than an eighth-place finish. Hamlin made his Cup debut at Texas in only his fifth career Cup start, piloting the #11 FedEx Chevy to a seventh-place finish. Hamlin has continued to perform well since, recording a fourth-place finish in the spring race last season, before posting a tenth-place finish in the 2006 edition of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. This spring, Hamlin fought back from a loose wheel that put him a lap down to finish ninth.

FedEx Express Fact: Prior to taking the wheel at TMS in Nov. of 2005, Hamlin was introduced as the driver of the #11 FedEx Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2006 season. Up that point Hamlin has raced only four cup races.

Texas Chassis – JGR 137 and JGR 121: Texas marks the fifth start of the 2007 season for Chassis 137. This car last saw action at Kansas in week three of the Chase where Hamlin qualified fifth but finished 29th after being collected in a lap 184 wreck. After posting top-20 runs at Fontana and Atlanta this spring, Hamlin drove this car to a 22nd place finish at Indy. JGR 121, the workhorse in the FedEx Monte Carlo fleet, will be the back up this week. It has made six starts in 2007 and only finished outside of the top ten on one occasion.

Q&A with Denny Hamlin:
Texas has been good to the FedEx Team, talk about your experience at TMS: “Even from my first start at Texas this track has felt really comfortable for me. It’s a track where you need to be really smooth and consistent, you need to hit your marks for sure, but you can find a way to pass at Texas. It’s a really fast track so the key is getting the car right so you can roll through the center and get back on throttle as quickly as possible. That’s where you can close on the cars in front of you. It helps a lot when you have a crew building such strong cars for this track. We’ve been really good off the truck every time we’ve come here, and that lets us focus on getting the car right where we want it in race trim.”

You are visiting a children’s hospital in Dallas on Thursday, talk about the FedEx Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet program: “We’ve been visiting patients at children’s hospitals leading up to race weekends for two years now and it is a great way for us to share what we love about racing with a lot of really great kids. Just like at the other hospitals we have visited, one of the patients designed the helmet I am going to wear at Texas this weekend. It’s the ninth helmet that has been specially designed for me to wear this season and after Homestead all of the helmets are going to be auctioned off online to benefit Victory Junction Gang Camp. These visits mean a lot to me. I have been lucky to meet some incredible kids and families – and even though they are going through tough times they really enjoy taking a break and having some fun.”