NASCAR (DAYTONA) - NEWS WEEK OF APRIL 30

5th-Place Hamlin Has 1st-Place Plans

Denny Hamlin is fifth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup standings this week. He feels like a surge toward the top – and a challenge to first-place Jeff Gordon – is inevitable. “We can get it done; we’re just not getting it done at the right time,” said Hamlin. “And believe me, Jeff Gordon and those guys have had great cars the last three or four, five weeks. But we've been as competitive, if not better, than they have. He's just kind of got all the breaks lately. …

“When it turns around, it's going to be big. We are going to reel off a bunch of wins.”

Hamlin’s words of confidence were uttered on Tuesday, during the weekly NASCAR Teleconference. For a complete teleconference transcript, go to NASCARMedia.com.

‘COT’ Producing Close Finishes

If Saturday’s running of the Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 at Richmond International Raceway is anything like the first three events NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow has been featured in, fans can expect another highly competitive and down-to-the-wire finish. In the new car’s first three races this season – at Bristol, Martinsville and Phoenix – the combined margin of victory is just .826 seconds. That can be broken down to .064 seconds at Bristol (Kyle Busch holds off Jeff Burton); .065 seconds at Martinsville (Jimmie Johnson edges Jeff Gordon) and .697 seconds at Phoenix (Gordon overtakes Tony Stewart for the win). One of the goals for the new car was to provide competitive racing and so far, that has been the case.

Chase ‘Seeding’ Watch, Week 10: Gordon On A Roll

This year, it’s all about winning.

Thus, when Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) failed to win earlier this season, his frustration was evident – as was his elation the last two weeks, after back-to-back victories.

Example: Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), who has three victories thus far this season, would start the Chase with 5,030 points.

As a four-time series champion, Gordon has been well aware of the increased importance of race victories, regarding qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup – and then, those qualifiers’ “Chase seeding.”

Starting this season, the 12 Chase qualifiers get 10 bonus points for each victory during the 26-race span leading up to the Chase, which consists of the last 10 races. Drivers qualifying for the Chase have their point totals “reset” to 5,000, whereupon bonus points are added, in effect creating “seedings” to start the Chase. Jimmie Johnson, with three victories thus far this season, would start the Chase in first place with 5,030 points. Gordon – who passed Dale Earnhardt for sixth place on the all-time win list (77) by winning at Talladega this past Sunday – would start the Chase “seeded” second, with 5,020 points, no matter if he was the points leader or not, prior to the Chase.

Gordon In Search Of Third-Straight Victory; Passes Dale Earnhardt With 77th Career Win

Jeff Gordon’s quest for his fifth NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series championship continues to move forward in high gear.

Gordon, who leads the standings by 203 points over second-place Jeff Burton, is riding a wave of momentum heading into this Saturday night’s race at Richmond. He’s fresh off two straight wins at Phoenix International Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway, both historical wins, and both coming from the Bud Pole. Sunday’s win at Talladega was the 77th of his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series career, moving him past Dale Earnhardt into sixth place on the series’ all-time win list. The 1998 season was the last time Gordon won three or more consecutive races. He won a career-high 13 events that year – tying the sport’s seventh-best, single-season win total – en route to claiming his third series title.

Gordon has been dominant in the previous three Car of Tomorrow races, finishing third at Bristol, second at Martinsville, and first at Phoenix. Gordon has two wins (1996, 2000), four poles, 10 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes at Richmond. Gordon will be looking to reverse his 2006 performances at RIR, however, as he finished 40th in last year’s spring race and 31st in the fall event.

NNCS, Etc.

• Kurt Busch Back In The Top 10 Again • Dale Earnhardt Jr. Returns To Site Of Last Win • Saturday’s Race First Ever Sporting Event Named After A Fan • RIR Sports Some Fancy New Digs

Kurt Busch (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) was a regular member of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series top 10 point standings during the 2004-05 seasons.

The 2004 series champion enters this week’s competition 10th in points, marking the first time he’s been in the top 10 since the end of 2005, when he finished 10th in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.

During the 2004-05 seasons, Busch was in the top 10 for 70 of a possible 72 weeks. In 2004, he was in the top 10 for 35 of 36 weeks. In 2005, he fell out of the top 10 for one week – following the season’s 14th event – but rebounded the next week and stayed in the top 10 for the remainder of the year. Last year was his first season with Penske Racing and he finished 16th in the final standings. Busch won the 2005 fall race at Richmond.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet) hopes history repeats itself this Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway – the site of his last NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series victory. Last May 6 at the Crown Royal 400, Earnhardt took the lead on Lap 356 and held off Denny Hamlin (No. 11 FedEx Express Chevrolet) and Kevin Harvick to claim his lone victory in 2006 and his 17th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup win. Earnhardt has three wins, seven top fives and nine top 10s at Richmond.

Jim Stewart is not your ordinary race fan. In fact, the Houma (Ho-ma), La., native is making sports history this weekend, becoming the first fan in the history of sports to have an event named after him.

In one of the most unique sports promotions ever, Stewart beat out more than 15,000 contestants from around the world to win a contest from race sponsor Crown Royal. Stewart had to submit his most “Crown-worthy” moment – one that is defined as a memorable moment or occasion deemed worthy of toasting with a Crown Royal beverage in a responsible manner. Stewart’s winning entry chronicled his moments growing up fishing with his father and later christening his own fishing boat with a toast to his father. Crown Royal is hosting a press conference Friday at 2:30 p.m. in the track’s media center to recognize Stewart.

Richmond International Raceway will unveil some new additions to its facility this weekend. The new Commonwealth Grandstand, located in Turn 1, has 7,843 new seats, bringing the track’s capacity to 112,029. It is also 180 feet high – two feet higher than the control tower at Richmond International Airport and the tallest structure in surrounding Henrico County. Also new is the TORQUE Club, a members-only, 16,000-square foot entertainment space in the middle level of the Commonwealth Grandstand.

Richmond: Teams Can Rely On Information From Last Month’s Test

Saturday night’s Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 at Richmond International Raceway will be the fourth event featuring NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow. If it’s anything like the previous three races, fans can expect a highly competitive race with a tightly contested finish.

Richmond’s .75-mile layout makes it one of the drivers’ and fans’ most popular venues in NASCAR. Here are some keys to getting into Victory Lane Saturday night:

• Use the information from last month’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series test. The teams went through a two-day test session at RIR April 3-4 and the teams that are able to transpose what they learned then into getting their car set up properly for the race should be running near the front most of the night.

• Teams will want to run well in the bottom lane, because that’s where they will have to pass.

• Green flag pit stops will probably occur, so good pit strategy is a must. Getting onto pit road during green flag racing can be tricky at RIR.

Competition Still Fierce To Get Inside Top 35

For the second week in a row, Casey Mears/owner Mary Hendrick (No. 25 National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet) is tinkering on the bubble spot of 35th in the car owner point standings. His DNF last Sunday at Talladega certainly didn’t allow him to improve his position.

Weekly in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, the top 35 teams in car owner points are guaranteed starting spots for that week’s event. Outside the top 35? That means you have to get into a race based solely on your qualifying speed.

Another team to keep an eye on this weekend is the No. 44 UPS Toyota, driven by former series champion Dale Jarrett and owned by Michael Waltrip. Currently 38th in the standings, Jarrett has used up all of his six allotted championship provisionals and must qualify on time for Saturday’s race. Jarrett won the series championship in 1999 and has competed in 424 straight NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races, the third longest current streak among active drivers, trailing only Jeff Gordon (482) and Bobby Labonte (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge – 481). The last time Jarrett did not participate in a scheduled NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race was April 1, 1990 at Darlington.