Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team waited out the rain, then waited for no one as they claimed their first win of 2009 in Monday’s Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.  Hamlin, now a three-time winner at the 2.5-mile track, led six times for a race-high 91 laps on his way to a fifth-career Sprint Cup win.  The result sees Hamlin grab fifth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings heading to Watkins Glen and the second road course race of the 2009 season this weekend.


Hamlin at Watkins Glen
This will be Hamlin’s fourth start at Watkins Glen in a Sprint Cup car, sixth start at the Glen overall, and 137th career Cup start.  Hamlin has never started or finished outside of the top-ten at the famous road course.  In 2008, Hamlin fought handling issue throughout much of the 90-lap event but the team enacted a near perfect fuel strategy to claim eighth-place on the day and essentially lock Hamlin into a spot in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.  In 2007, Hamlin started from the second spot on the grid and ran in the in the top-five for the majority of the day, battling Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart for position and, eventually, the win.  A late-race spin by Gordon ultimately saw Stewart take the checkered flag with Hamlin finishing second.  In his Cup debut at the Glen in 2006, Hamlin started and finished tenth at the 2.45-mile track.  Despite being very competitive throughout the race, Hamlin fell victim to track position and was forced to restart deep in the field late in the race.  Running as far back as 20th-place with less than thirty laps remaining, Hamlin pushed the #11 forward to grab a tenth-place finish on the final lap.


Watkins Glen Chassis – JGR 241 and 208
The #11 team will unload chassis #241 this weekend for a second-ever start.  This car posted a fifth place finish at Sonoma in June.  208 is the back up and has yet to make a start this season.


SCH Along for the Ride at Watkins Glen
FedEx National LTL Service Center SCH, located in Schaumburg, IL, will be featured on the wing caps of the #11 FedEx Freight Toyota this weekend at Watkins Glen. SCH was selected as the Northern Region Center-of-the-Year for achieving operational excellence.


Hamlin Conversation – Road Course Ready


The second of two road-course stops this season – how does Watkins Glen compare to Infineon?
“The first thing that jumps out is the fact that, compared to Sonoma, the Glen is a faster course.  You need to be smart with the brakes, especially running down into turn one where you have your main opportunity for passing, and it’s a place where you are carrying a bunch of speed.  You are working to get the car slowed down and trying to turn as all of that weight is shifting to the front of the car under breaking.  Getting that brake balance right is really important.  At the Glen you are right on the throttle off the turns where at Sonoma it seems you are always waiting, searching for grip and have to be a little more cautious.   Like Sonoma or any road course, you are also dealing with fuel strategy and that is always going to be a big factor.   You’ll see guys coming in right away to take fuel to set themselves up for the end, while others might choose to wait.  So much is determined by where you are when the cautions come out.  You do what you can to make the right decision for your car and your team, to put yourself in the best possible situation, but you can’t control what the other 42 cars are doing out there.  The Glen is still really technical – you need to be consistent and smooth because there are lots of ways to get in trouble, or throw off your momentum and you need that so you are in position should you have a chance to pass.”


How does it feel to put that winless streak behind you?
“It feels good to get a win for sure.  We needed it as a team and I know I needed it as a driver.  Not winning when you feel like you should be gets frustrating and it wears on you.  It would have been one thing if we weren’t contending for wins and were way off in terms of being competitive, but we have led a lot of laps and feel like we deserved to be winning races.  For whatever reason, something would happen and we could only point to bad luck.  Bad luck is something you can’t fix in the shop so we had to keep our heads down and keep working knowing it would pay off eventually.  Now we have the win, and it was a big win for the team for a lot of reasons.  It means a lot to us.  From here we look at what we need to do to lock into the Chase.  We’ve been in every year but it’s been since 2006 that we’ve been really competitive.  We want to get back to that point and hopefully that means more days like Monday before the season is over.”


You are back in a Nationwide Series car this weekend for the first time since Las Vegas in March.  What is your outlook on that side of the garage?
“It has been a while but I am looking forward to it.  Running both series makes for a busy weekend but I like racing at Watkins Glen, and I have had success in the Nationwide Series on road courses.  Even though the cars are really different the time on track will be useful.  I actually think the Nationwide cars are harder to drive here than the Cup cars – just harder to pass in a lot of ways but it will be good to get out there and see if we can’t have two good races.”