Hamlin looks to seize opportunity with several favorites down in standings
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CONCORD, N.C. — The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend for the Bank of America 500 (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC), but next week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway was very much on several drivers’ minds.
The GEICO 500 is the final race in the Contender Round for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Drivers expect chaos, and plenty of it, at the 2.66-mile track.
What does that mean for this week at Charlotte?
Drivers expect to see those who suffered setbacks at Kansas to go all-out given the uncertainty of the 2.66-mile track and the potential of the “Big One” looming.
“I can’t emphasize enough how different Talladega will be because it will have nothing to do with performance,” Denny Hamlin said. “The guys that have been running 35th and 40th all year have just as good a chance as anyone to win that race. That’s why I think there has got to be a sense of urgency for those teams to make up points this weekend versus next weekend. You just can’t count on fast cars next weekend to make up those points.”
With drivers such as six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski in the bottom four of the Chase standings after Kansas, opportunity is knocking at Charlotte.
“We have ourselves a great opportunity to move on and race for a championship where the other guys are probably very frustrated with this because they’ve got multiple wins and have shown speed and things like that and are behind us in points,” Hamlin said. ” … I think this is what NASCAR wanted, they wanted to reset it and for it always to be close, but when you do that you open the door up for some of these teams that haven’t shown strength to just get hot at the right moment and come up and almost steal a championship away.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has a goal in mind of what kind of shape he wants to be in after leaving Charlotte.
“My goal is to leave here and have to finish 30th or better next weekend,” Hamlin said. “That would make me feel pretty good about next week.”
Following his seventh-place finish at Kansas, Hamlin comes to Charlotte in fifth place in the standings, 14 points ahead of ninth-place driver Kasey Kahne. Hamlin is well aware of the fact that Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski are in trouble of advancing.
“We would love to see them eliminated because they are our biggest threats going forward,” Hamlin said. “When you look at Homestead and what it’s going to take to win that race, if you had to pick four cars in the field that you have to beat to win that race, you would say those four guys are part of your top six guys in the field that you have to beat to win that race. If they’re eliminated, then you don’t have to beat them. Definitely, the road to the championship gets much easier when those type of guys are eliminated early.”
For the Hendrick Motorsports trio of Kahne, Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson, they come into Charlotte looking for a win as the quickest cure-all for their Kansas blues.
Johnson was involved in an early four-car wreck and finished the day in 40th place. Earnhardt Jr. finished in 39th place, despite leading 45 laps, after a tire went down and sent him into the wall. Kahne suffered a cut tire that took him from the top five to a 22nd-place finish.
Johnson, a seven-time winner at Charlotte and currently in 12th place in the standings, has his eyes on one thing.
“We’re here to try and win the race, but if we can’t, we still need to finish well, and hope we have some luck down in Talladega,” Johnson said.
The specter of Talladega, though, Johnson says, has always been there for him, but the format change in the Chase may have raised its importance.
“Maybe the format has heightened that some because you only have three races to advance here. That one has always been lurking. It’s just hiding out there waiting for us.”
Earnhardt Jr., who was looking the best he had in this year’s Chase just before trouble found him, is unfazed by the fact that he is winless at his home track.
“We obviously know what the situation is with the points and how important it is for us to come in here and win the race,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I have been winless at Charlotte in a points-paying race since I started my career, so it’s bound to happen sooner or later.”
Kahne’s current point situation is something that is not lost on him as he comes to one of his best tracks, where he has four wins, 12 top-10s and an average finish of 11.5 in 21 starts. Given his situation in the standings, Kahne said there is no place he would rather be racing than Charlotte.
“I think this would be the track if I had to choose,” Kahne said. “A place where I feel the most confident on kind of understanding and knowing what I need in the car to win Saturday night or at least come close, put it there and have a shot.”
No driver heads into Charlotte in better position than Joey Logano, who won last weekend at Kansas Speedway and automatically advanced to the Eliminator Round. Hamlin isn’t in as good a spot as Logano, but he’s still in good shape.
The winner of the spring race at Talladega, Hamlin was the most vocal of drivers when talking about not wanting to leave you fate up in the air heading to the Alabama track.
“You thought it was going to be wild, but now with the way it’s playing out and especially those cars that have had bad races last week, it’s shaping up to be very epic. Until the last lap you will not know who is going to be in or out.”
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