NEXTEL CUP - The Long Way to Third at Martinsville for Hamlin,

MARTINSVILLE, VA (April 2, 2007) - Denny Hamlin drove the #11 FedEx Express Chevrolet to a third-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, his second consecutive top-three finish at the half-mile track and confirmation that the combination of the Virginia native and Joe Gibbs Racing Car of Tomorrow program are a threat to win on any of the short tracks on the Nextel Cup Series.

Starting from the pole, Hamlin’s FedEx Chevy was the class of the field early and he led the first 40 laps of the race before surrendering the lead under the second caution of the day. Hamlin quickly regained the lead and added to his total of 125 laps led on the day until just before the midpoint of the race when a pit stop mishap dropped Hamlin eight spots to tenth.

Back in the pack, the #11 wasn’t as comfortable and with handling a challenge, Hamlin struggled to make his way forward before the rain halted the 500 lap race with 150 laps to go. Forced to wait out the 33-minute delay on pit road, Mike Ford and the #11 crew devised a pit strategy that would, if everything went as planned, get Hamlin out of heavy traffic and back to the front. The strategy worked and, benefiting from his ability to make it to the end on fuel, Hamlin ran the rest of the afternoon in the top five before taking the checkered flag in third.

"We had a really good #11 FedEx Chevrolet out there for most of the day, a car capable of winning. We were strong from the start before we had a problem on pit road that cost us track position and took us away from our strategy. Back in traffic we weren't as good and we had to slowly work our way back to the front, and took advantage of some pit strategy to get back in contention. It worked well to get us back to the front and anytime you can leave Martinsville with a top-three finish you can count it as a good day."

Jimmie Johnson held off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon in a fifteen lap end-of-race shootout for his third win of the season and his second consecutive at Martinsville Speedway. Hamlin led the Joe Gibbs Racing contingent that included finishes of seventh and 23rd for Tony Stewart and J.J. Yeley, respectively.

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series takes a week off next weekend before heading to Texas Motor Speedway in two weeks time.

With the sky dark over the half-mile track, NASCAR officials hurried to get the race started to get at least 251 laps, which was the halfway point and necessary to make the race official. From the drop of the green Hamlin pulled away but radioed the crew that he was really struggling on exit off the hairpin turn. A caution on lap nine reset the field but once again the clean air out front offered Hamlin the chance to pull away and it wasn’t until he caught lapped traffic on lap 23 that the handling tightened.

The caution flag flew on lap 43 and Hamlin pulled the FedEx Impala SS onto the narrow confines of pit road for the first time. Ford called for air pressure and track bar adjustments, along with four tires and fuel, and the #11 crew sent Hamlin out to restart second behind Elliott Sadler. Sadler took the field to the green but the decision to take only two tires under caution made it impossible to hold off Hamlin and within nine laps the #11 car was out front again.

The lead was short lived, however, as Jeff Gordon lurked just behind and dove in for the lead on lap 55. Hamlin would battle Gordon as they navigated lapped traffic, but with his handling lacking in traffic he was unable to pass. The caution on lap 90 offered the opportunity to make changes and the crew went ahead with air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustment to give Hamlin the forward bite he had been calling for since the start.

Hamlin restated second on lap 97 and then again after a quick caution on lap 101. The changes took effect on the long run and Hamlin methodically caught Gordon before passing him on lap 139. Once in the lead, the #11 was once again able to pull away and Hamlin would hold the top spot until the caution flew on lap 218. On pit road as the leader, a mishap on pit road dropped Hamlin to tenth for the start. As one tire rolled away from the box, the front left tire wasn’t completely tight before Hamlin was down and away. He was forced to back up into the box for one more crack at the left-side tire before he could pull out. Additionally, Hamlin’s pit road experience was difficult because the needle on his tachometer fell off halfway through the race. Without the working tach, Hamlin was relying on the other cars to give him an indication of pit road speed. On two occasions, Jeff Gordon put a bumper to the back of the #11 to give Hamlin an approximate speed.

Restarting tenth after the stop, Hamlin and the FedEx crew had an entirely new set of challenges in front of them. While the car was clearly more comfortable out front and in clean air, his current surroundings provided little room and even less air. Hamlin’s initial feedback was that the car was tight in traffic and he was still looking for something to help his drive off the 12-degree corners. He would drop as far as 14th following a caution on lap 244 that brought out a variety of pit strategies as teams looked to gain track position at any cost. Despite engine temps rising on the #11 as he searched for his openings, Hamlin moved up to ninth by the time the caution flag flew for the eighth time on lap 308.

On pit road for another set of track bar and wedge adjustments, Hamlin restarted eighth and raced teammate Stewart for the fifth spot on lap 349 before the forecasted showers soaked the track and brought out the red flag. The rain stopped almost immediately and the jet dryers set about the task of drying the track and limiting the delay to only 33 minutes.

The break gave all of the teams ample time to discuss strategy and the #11 team made the decision to pit before the restart to make changes and take on enough fuel to make the end. Knowing that teams who pitted before the caution would not have enough fuel to see the checkered flag without stopping, and that there would likely be a quick caution on the green track, the crew was confident the strategy would get Hamlin back toward the front before too long. Their intuition proved correct and when the caution flew 13 laps later, Hamlin stayed on the track and lined up to restart third as most of the field turned onto pit road.

By lap 403 the #11 FedEx Chevy was once again the fastest car on the track but Hamlin was still struggling with forward bite. Unable to pit without sacrificing several positions, he lined up second for the restart behind Johnson in a situation eerily resembling the race at Martinsville in the fall of 2006 when the two battled to a one-two finish.

On this day, Hamlin couldn’t catch the #48 and was unable to hold off the onrushing #24 of Gordon with 50 to go. Through one last caution he gave the Hendrick teammates his best effort but ultimately settled for third on the day, and a jump to sixth in the NNCS standings through six races.

Post Race Quotes:

On the Overall Performance of the #11 FedEx Chevrolet: "I was pretty confident when we started. It seems like our car was good for five laps then was bad for 25-30 laps then would come on again at the end. That was kind for the day. We just could not get going on the short runs. Definitely liked that we ended the race on older tires which kind of played in to our hands, but I was fairly confident. But I knew this track was going to go through big changes through the course of the race, it always does. But it seemed like the track also changed quite a bit after that rain delay. It kind of set us back to where we were at the beginning of the race.”

On the Broken Tachometer: “When our tach broke, I didn't have any way of checking pit road speed and that was kind of a challenge because the No.24 would kill us on pit road because he knew what speed to run and I really didn't. I have never seen a needle fall off a tach before, but ours sure did it today. I was kind of relying on the No.24 to push me down pit road to know what pit road speed was. That was kind of frustrating then when we dropped the jack too soon and then a lug nut fell off, all of that compounded to really a tough day. We put ourselves in a strategy there at the end that we had to short pit, of course we had older tires. We were coming back to those guys at the end.”

On Track Position in the Car of Tomorrow: "Maybe it was a little bit harder than usual. But there really wasn't that much difference. I know myself and Jeff got in the back that one time and he was able to get through the traffic a little bit better than I was but I think at that stage, his car was a little bit better than mine. I think it was pretty much Martinsville as usual."