Hamlin, No. 11 crew chief Ford differ on team's status (cont'd)

Ford said he constantly has to try to counter Hamlin's pessimism with some optimism -- sort of like playing good cop to his driver's mental bad cop.

"Oh, yeah. All the time. People are starting to understand that, and I just let it go," Ford said. "But then he has a field day and you have to say, 'OK, if things were stacked against you, where would you be?'

"It's not nearly what people think -- and they think it because they hear the head spokesperson for this team say it. They think it's true, but the reality of it is you wouldn't be in the Chase three years straight and you wouldn't be sitting in the top 10 right now if things were bad. He's never been in a situation where things are bad. So it's all in perception."

Hamlin admittedly is eager to return to Victory Lane, having last won in March of 2008 at Martinsville -- 43 races ago. He has made the Chase each of the last three seasons, finishing a career-high third in 2006.

That was the only time in his career, now in its fourth full year, that Hamlin won more than one race during a season. He did it by sweeping both races at Pocono, which one would think would give him confidence heading into Sunday's event.

Then again, maybe not.

"Our advantage here really ended when we had the [new car] come here," Hamlin said. "We felt like we had a real stronghold on this race track with the old car. We ran it here in 2007 as well; we didn't get any of those victories -- one because rain shortened it while we were on pit road.

"It just seems like with the [new car], we've had a about a third-place car here every time. I know what I want to feel here, but it's tough to get that feel with this new car. We kind of have to compromise and just hope that we hit that setup right when we unload."

It appeared during Happy Hour on Saturday -- a day after rain washed out Friday's one practice session and qualifying -- that the setup on Hamlin's car was where it needed to be. He turned the fastest lap in the final practice, with a top speed of 165.317 mph.

Then again, Ford warned not to read too much into that.

"As far as Happy Hour, I don't know the number but if you go back and look, I'll bet we've won more Happy Hours than anyone," Ford said. "I think he focuses on that, and goes out and busts off a lap at the beginning of practice. It's kind of a -- I won't say a momentum-builder or ego-builder -- but it's something where he can say, 'OK, I can run a fast lap.' But at the end of practice, it's not really worth a whole lot to you."