HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- On Saturday, Denny Hamlin sent a message to Brad Keselowski by spinning him out in the Nationwide Series finale. On Sunday, Hamlin may have sent a message to the rest of the Cup field by winning the Ford 400.

"I tell you, we're going to be there, I promise you," Hamlin said, referring to Jimmie Johnson's championship celebration. "I promise you, the next couple of years, we're going to win a championship."

“

I promise you, the next couple of years, we're going to win a championship.

”

-- DENNY HAMLIN

There was no one who could claim to be Johnson's equal this season, but Hamlin's two wins and six top-10 finishes during the Chase certainly gives him confidence that his No. 11 Toyota can attain that level some day, especially when factoring that Hamlin had three races in which he retired before the finish.

"We were right there," Hamlin said. "But those guys have been the standard. They haven't made mistakes and that's who we ultimately want to beat, is the guys who are a dominating force like them. I think we're showing that we have that strength to compete with those guys. It's just that they've done a phenomenal job."

If anything, Hamlin said he's noticed a trend in the way the Chase plays out.

"It looks like the trend has been you get one bad race if you want to be a champion," Hamlin said. "The others had multiple bad races. But each one of those races where we blew up, we were leading, and if we had just averaged seventh or eighth, I think, in those races, then we're out on the front stage celebrating right now.

"But on the other hand, then the 48 maybe would have to run harder or perform better. So it's tough to play the numbers games and what if. But all I know is we've been competitive enough to run with those guys, and we've come a long way as a race team. You know, even though we had some parts failures in the Chase, the driver still made a mistake, which that can't happen in the Chase next year." (Continued)