WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Despite knee surgery and a fine for speaking his mind, Denny Hamlin is in the midst of his best Cup Series season as he visits Watkins Glen International for the final road-course race of 2010.

Hamlin has a career-high five Cup victories this season and is on pace to equal or set career highs in top-fives (eight) and top-10s (nine). Sitting third in points, he's a lock to make the Chase -- he has yet to miss one in his career -- and would start the postseason tied for the lead thanks to his five victories.

“

I haven't won a points race at a restrictor plate track or a road course, This is obviously our last opportunity to do it on a road course, so no better time than now.

”

-- DENNY HAMLIN

It appears everything is starting to click for Hamlin and the No. 11 team.

"We feel like we've been strong for the last two or three years, really, consistently," Hamlin said. "We've been able to win at a lot of race tracks, but it just seems like this year we figured out how to close deals a little bit better than what we have in the past. And that's really been the biggest change for us."

In Hamlin's five victories this season, he's led the most laps in three of them and has found himself pacing the field 12 times this season. It's been a good year for Hamlin, but like every Cup driver, he is craving more.

"I haven't won a points race at a restrictor plate track or a road course," Hamlin said. "I'd like to get those all over with. This is obviously our last opportunity to do it on a road course, so no better time than now."

With four top-10s in four starts at the 2.45-mile, seven turn road course, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the No. 11 Toyota in Victory Lane. According to Hamlin, for the first time at The Glen, he has a car capable of getting it done.

"I haven't really been a race-winning car [at Watkins Glen], we've just been consistent," Hamlin said. "We've only been here four times and we finished second one time and we had a shot to win that one, but other than that we've just been a consistent top-five car most of the time here. We never really had that all-out speed that it took.

"Now, this weekend we feel like we do have a car that could win. We'll see what happens. This car has been good to us. We've won with this car at Pocono and Homestead and Martinsville. We turned it into a road course car and it's obviously good now."

Race-winning car aside, Hamlin admitted there is one guy that could prevent him from getting that first road course victory -- and it's his former teammate.

"Tony Stewart is really good at this track," Hamlin said. "He never really shows that speed in practice, but he's always really, really fast in the race. You never can count him out. He's one of the best at not making mistakes on the road courses. A lot of people are faster than Tony, but self-destruct and that's where he's seemed to pounce on guys in the years past."

Hamlin bested Stewart in the first practice Friday with a lap of 122.022 mph, the second-fastest on the speed chart. But Stewart topped Hamlin in final practice and qualifying with Stewart qualifying sixth for Sunday's race while Hamlin will start a frustrating 14th.

"We are a little disappointed because we thought we had a shot at the pole," Hamlin said. "We got loose in Turn 5 and lost a little bit of time, but overall it was OK."

A small mistake cost Hamlin in qualifying, and that's exactly what Hamlin admitted he couldn't do in the race. Hamlin said you have to be flawless to beat the man with four wins in the past six Watkins Glen events.

"We're going to have to just out-race him to be faster and then not make a mistake and that line is very fine," Hamlin said, "... to be faster than him and still be in a comfort zone where you know you're not going to make a mistake. I think we should be pretty good [Sunday]."