Hamlin, Ford finally feel ready to take next step

DOVER, Del. -- As amazing as it sounds, despite being in his fourth consecutive Chase, Denny Hamlin says it's only now that he and crew chief Mike Ford are truly on the same page.

"We've been steadily progressing and performance-wise, at the end of the day this is probably the strongest we've been," Ford said Friday after qualifying. "Denny's got more confidence in things and understands what he needs better, so I would say 'yes' from that aspect.

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Denny Hamlin discusses the team's improvements and his frustration with tire testing.

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"But the team has been strong from the beginning -- it just takes time to evolve, to get to championship contention. It's putting in the time and growing together and having a total team understanding -- not just crew chief and driver."

The past 13 weeks of the season are stark proof that Hamlin, who finished third in the championship in his rookie season, and his team truly have arrived. In that time he, Ford and their No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team have ripped off two wins, eight top-five finishes and 11 top-10s along with eight top-10 starting positions.

That moved Hamlin from 12th -- the last position in the Chase -- to the fourth seed as the Chase opened. He's now third after a hard-fought second in the Chase opener at New Hampshire, and it's positioning Hamlin for a career year as the sixth annual Chase hits its second of 10 rounds in Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

"Yeah, [the team is] definitely [better than it's ever been] -- I think so," Hamlin said. "Me and Mike, the way we're communicating is definitely really, really good. It's hard to say it's taken four years, but he's really starting to figure out what it is -- the kind of feel that I like in a race car. He's definitely getting better as far as that's concerned.

"I think our communication is better, and I think every little aspect of our car has been getting better over the course of the year. Our pit crew has been getting a little bit better. We've improved in a lot of different areas that I felt like we needed to improve on."

The fact is, through 27 races Hamlin's already equaled his career-best season victory total after winning at Pocono and Richmond. He's got 10 top-five finishes, only two short of his career high, and 15 top-10s, only five short of his best and three less than his three-year average.

"We were always competitive before," Hamlin said. "We would contend for a win, maybe one out of every two or three races or something like that. Now, I think it's every week, because we're starting to get in a rhythm. Obviously, confidence is up through the entire race team."

Mike Ford and Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin

Cup Stats (full-time years)

	2006	2007	2008	2009
Starts	36	36	36	27
Wins	2	1	1	2
Top-5s	8	12	12	10
Top-10s	20	18	18	15
Poles	3	1	1	0
Laps Led	418	906	766	1,014
Avg. Start	13.4	12.4	15.3	13.7
Avg. Finish	12.5	14.0	15.4	12.0
Points	3	12	8	3

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And Friday, after Hamlin picked up 12 spots from his lowly 25th in practice to 13th in qualifying, Ford said Hamlin's been part of the improvement -- not that the process has been simple.

"It's the same team," Ford said. "You look at the guys that are winning championships, they've been together for a long period of time. My take on it is it takes a long time if you've got the right people in place, to work on the things that you see over time, to close the gaps between [teams].

"I feel like our group is very aggressive in doing that, and we have been over the last [13] races. It's their fourth year with Denny, and I feel like he's matured a lot and he's come to understand how this evolves."

And now the series is at Dover, a track where Hamlin had a fourth-place finish in the first race for the new car, in 2007; but has struggled since then, with only two third-place starts and a best finish of 36th in his past four races.

Ford agreed with his driver when he said the team's improvement should show by race time.

"We've gotten very aggressive in closing the gap on some of the things that we feel like we needed to be stronger with," Ford said. "We're building better equipment and not resting on the fact that we were going to get into the Chase and not touch anything. We're still working on things, and those last [13] races just showed the potential of the team -- I think there's more there."

Along with Ford's confidence, and despite the minor improvement from practice to qualifying, Hamlin has high expectations for Sunday.

"A top-five would be acceptable [because] we don't expect to say, 'Hey, a top-10 will do,'" Hamlin said. "I think we need to run a little bit better than that. I'm sure we'll figure it out. [Saturday] we're going to get it figured out and we'll be up there where we belong.

"Right now, it's just a little bit of a headache and a bad day. That's all."