Joe Gibbs Racing

Denny Hamlin is currently competing in his fourth full season behind the wheel of the #11 FedEx Toyota Camry, looking to build on the success he has enjoyed to date while continuing his evolution from perennial Chase for the Sprint Cup contender to Sprint Cup Champion.

Heading into the 2009 season, Hamlin had amassed 115 career starts at the Cup level, scored four wins, six poles and has finished in the top-ten in over half of his starts.

The 2008 Sprint Cup season was, by any definition, a season of change. As Joe Gibbs Racing made the move to Toyota, the Cup Series made the full-time move to the Car of Tomorrow, and Hamlin welcomed Kyle Busch as a teammate, the #11 FedEx team was hoping that change would also come in the form of a serious Championship effort. Despite making the Chase for the NASCAR Cup in both 2006 & 2007 the onus was on the team to translate regular season success into a successful Chase effort.

The spring race at Richmond International highlighted both the satisfaction of fully dominating an event and the speed with which that dominance can be undone. Hamlin started the 400-lap event from the pole and led an impressive 381 laps before a cut tire forced him to pit road with only 19 laps to go.

A win on a cold, rainy day in Martinsville earned Hamlin his sole Cup triumph of the 2008 season and a long-coveted Martinsville Grandfather clock. As Hamlin marched to his third consecutive Chase, the team was hoping to avoid the letdown that marked the 2007 edition but alas, it was not to be. After mechanical failure in Dover and a tremendous hit following a cut tire at Talladega, Hamlin was all but eliminated from championship contention and finished the year in eighth-place.