"Really, this year, our expectations have been so low from everyone around that we’ve flown so much under the radar that we don’t have any pressure from here on out," Hamlin said during Eliminator Round Media Day at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "I mean, no one thought we’d be here. Now, I love our chances at having a shot for a championship at Homestead.



"This format is just tailor made for an average team that’s just been squeaking by, squeaking by, to get hot at the right time and next thing you know, steal a championship."



Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway are three of Hamlin’s better tracks in the Sprint Cup Series. The 33-year-old has four wins at Martinsville (with an average finish of 8.8, his second-best among active tracks), two wins at Texas (with an average finish of 10.8, his fifth-best among active tracks) and one win at Phoenix (with an average finish of 11.3, his seventh-best among active tracks). 



"Looking at these three racetracks, I can win any of them, easily."



Hamlin sees this round — specifically Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway (1:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) — as a great chance for his team to take advantage of speed not being as big of an issue.



"It’s a huge opportunity for us," Hamlin said. "As average as our team, in general, has been this year, we go into a short track where horsepower doesn’t matter. Aerodynamics doesn’t matter. It’s about the driver and mechanical setup. And I feel like that’s our strong suit with our team."

While speed has been an issue at times for the Gibbs group and the Toyota fleet in general, Hamlin sees no reason that the team can’t be right there at the end.



"I believe we’ve got all the tools necessary. We’ve got a pit crew that is very, very fast even though we’ve got a setback there with losing our jackman (Nate Bolling). There’s no reason we can’t be as competitive as any one of these seven guys that we’re going to be racing against these last four races."



Despite his good record at Martinsville, Hamlin finished 19th there in the spring after qualifying second. He warned that those results came with little practice time at the track as the final two practices were washed out by rain. Since then, Hamlin disclosed that his team worked on their Martinsville setup at a similarly-configured track in Sandusky, Ohio.



"Normally I wouldn’t give that information away, but there’s no more testing," Hamlin joked referring to a change announced as part of the 2015 rules package for the Sprint Cup Series that bans private testing by teams.

And should he reach Homestead, Hamlin has a strong record there with two wins and an average finish of 11.2, his sixth-best among active tracks. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota won there in last year’s season finale.



"Truth be told, if you ask me ‘you have one race to race heads up for a championship, pick either Martinsville or Homestead?’ I’d almost pick Homestead simply because we’ve just had a lot of success there over these last few years and its been a great track for us. No one saw us winning last year. We were running like 15th every week and all of sudden, we win Homestead."



Hamlin came to Homestead once before with a shot at the championship. In 2010, Hamlin led Jimmie Johnson by 15 points entering the season’s final race. Hamlin finished 14th that day, while Johnson finished second, securing his fifth straight title by 39 points.

 Since then Hamlin has learned plenty, but mostly he just wants that chance to race for a championship in the season finale again and the new format makes that a bit easier to reach.


"What we learned in 2010 is to have fun," Hamlin said. "And this year is going to be fun no matter what, because the expectations have been so low. I always said that if you just give me that Homestead 2010 chance back, then I promise I’d win it. It’s hard to do that knowing you are going to have to race three guys heads-up and its going to be the best of the four (that wins the title), but I just want that chance again to be heads-up with those guys at Homestead."

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