Season preview: Denny Hamlin

Strides: Denny Hamlin carried momentum from his victory in the 2013 season finale into Speedweeks, winning the Sprint Unlimited exhibition and one of the two Budweiser Duel qualifying races ahead of the Daytona 500. He finished just short of winning the Great American Race with a runner-up finish, but applied the No. 11 team’s knack for restrictor-plate tracks to post his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway, clinching a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

Once in the postseason, Hamlin was able to advance through all three rounds of the Chase’s new format, landing one of four title-eligible spots in the Sprint Cup Championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He led 50 laps but wound up seventh in the finale — third among the championship quartet — when a gamble on pit strategy unraveled in the late stages.

“We gave it our best run,” Hamlin said. “I mean, we put together really our best race all year, that final race, and gave those guys a run when we really hadn’t had the speed to race with them all year. We gave it an effort and just came up short. Really proud of what we were able to accomplish this year, even though it was somewhat of a down year for our team.”

Setbacks: A freak eye injury in March forced Hamlin to seek medical care at Auto Club Speedway for the second straight year on race day. In 2013, a tangle with Joey Logano left Hamlin with a broken back that sidelined him for four races and part of a fifth; in 2014, a sliver of metal in his left eye forced him out, just an hour before the green flag. A medical exemption by NASCAR officials allowed him to remain Chase-eligible as long as he met all other criteria.

The new Chase qualification rules also benefited Hamlin later in the season, but the No. 11 team still felt heavy repercussions in the process. After a post-race technical infraction was found at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR issued stiff penalties by stripping the team of 75 points, suspending crew chief Darian Grubb for six races and fining him $125,000.

Injuries and penalties notwithstanding, Hamlin said after the season that he drove most of the year facing a performance deficit compared to his front-running rivals. With Joe Gibbs Racing expanding to a four-team operation with the addition of Carl Edwards to the 2015 driver roster, Hamlin said he hopes the benefits of additional information sharing can help get the organization over the hump.

“You’ve just got to get better in all aspects, and I think we’ve always just been kind of that next-tier team, realistically,” Hamlin said. “We can compete for race wins, week in and week out, but the championships have escaped us through mechanical stuff, which we’ve worked out, or this year it was just our cars weren’t fast enough to compete with those guys. However, we gave ourselves a great chance that last race to really sneak a championship away from ’em, but overall we’ve just got to get better in more areas, and I think going to the fourth team will allow us to do that.”

Quoteworthy: “A lot of ups and downs — it’s been a tough year to start the year missing a race. We didn’t have the tools to win a lot of races throughout the year, but we got better and we got better when it really counted. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. Everyone gave 100 percent to give me the best car they could this weekend. It just wasn’t enough to beat those guys.” — Hamlin, moments after finishing seventh in the championship race at Homestead-Miami.

What’s next: Hamlin’s three-year run with Grubb drew to a close after a dramatic shake-up to JGR’s crew chief lineup in the offseason. The new assignments for 2015 mean that Hamlin will pair with Dave Rogers, who served as crew chief for Kyle Busch on the No. 18 Toyota team in Sprint Cup since 2010.

What won’t change is the team’s ultra-fast pit crew, often credited as one of the sport’s best. Rogers and Hamlin have worked together with success in what is now called the NASCAR XFINITY Series (seven wins together), and Rogers’ tenure with Busch produced 13 Sprint Cup wins over a five-year stretch.

Hamlin’s 2014 finish was the third near-miss in his quest for a career-defining breakthrough championship at NASCAR’s highest level. Though times are changing at JGR with its expansion and juggling of crew chiefs, Hamlin brings high hopes that the new combination with Rogers will bear fruit in 2015.

“He’s well-regarded within our sport amongst other crew chiefs and I know what he can do,” Hamlin said. “He’s been with the No. 11 FedEx team before. This is his second time around, but me and him have never worked together in the Cup Series. I have driven his cars during tests and been really fast and comfortable with them, so I’m very excited about what we can do.”