This weekend will mark Hamlin's ninth start at Texas Motor Speedway and 149th career Cup Series start. Earlier this season, Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team scored a hard-fought 12th-place finish at Texas, battling handling issues for much of the race but still managing to achieve their highest position by the time the checkered flag came out. Hamlin started from the 22nd spot on the grid and methodically worked his way forward over the course of a long and trying afternoon. In general, this 1.5-mile track has been very good to Hamlin and the #11 FedEx team since the Chesterfield (Va.) native was introduced as the full-time driver of the #11 car in Nov. of 2005. In only his fifth career Cup start, he piloted 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, and posting a tenth-place finish in the 2006 edition of the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Despite going a lap down in the spring 2007 event at TMS, Hamlin and team rallied back for a ninth-place finish.
