Last weeks results
Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team followed up their win at Pocono with a hard-fought tenth-place finish in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen Monday afternoon at Watkins Glen International.  Hamlin challenged for the lead early, holding the second spot from lap three to lap 19, but a pit road penalty dropped him back to restart 36th on lap 20.  Despite the setback, Hamlin fought all the way back to post his tenth top-ten of the season and solidify his grasp on fifth place in the Sprint Cup standings heading to Michigan.


Hamlin at Michigan International Speedway
Michigan International has offered mixed results for the #11 FedEx Racing team over the course of Hamlin’s seven previous career starts. Earlier this season, Hamlin posted a best-ever finish at the 2.0-mile track, driving a new car from JGR to an impressive third-place finish A year ago, a blown engine with six laps remaining made for an agonizing day for Hamlin and the #11 team.  After starting from 37th place on the grid, Hamlin and the team worked through handling issues all afternoon but raced into the top-ten before his engine expired on lap 194.  In June of 2008, a pit stop on lap 155 looked to have Hamlin well-positioned for a top-five finish but a late caution sent the race into extra laps and the #11 team was forced to pit for fuel and settle for a 14th-place finish.  In June of 2007 the #11 FedEx team had a car capable of running in the top-five and challenging for the win at MIS but costly pit road mishaps on laps 37 and 114 left Hamlin off the lead lap and having to scrape for a frustrating 14th-place finish.  In the fall of 2007, Hamlin started and finished in the top-ten and left the #11 team satisfied with their ever-improving performances on the 2.0-mile track.  In the rain shortened 3M Performance 400 in June 2006, Hamlin had worked his way up from the 21st spot on the grid to 12th before the race was called due to rain.


Michigan International Chassis – JGR 253 and 225
The #11 team will unload chassis #253 this weekend for a first-ever start this weekend at Michigan.  225 is the back up and has only one start this season, a 22nd-place finish at Las Vegas.


FedEx Office Store #1630 Along for the Ride in Michigan
In recognition of their outstanding commitment to customer service, FedEx Office store #1630 will be featured on the wing caps of the #11 FedEx Office Toyota this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Store #1630, located in Monroe, La., is leading all stores in customer service standings.


Hamlin Conversation - Michigan


The first Michigan race served as a turning point of sorts for this #11 FedEx team:
“It was a turning point in a couple of ways.  We had a string of races where we had struggled so to run third there in June helped to get us pointed in the right direction.  We went on a nice run after that and it helped keep us in pretty good shape in the points and in terms of the top-12.  But, and way more important in terms of our season, was the performance of a new car for this team and being able to take a lot of what we learned and put it towards more and more races this season.  That was a new car that the team had put a lot of time into, with significant changes to our previous intermediate cars.  We knew we needed to take a big step forward at places like Michigan and California so to go there and be competitive was big for this team.  We now have a better baseline for where we want to be when we unload and that allows us to make better use of practice.  We took that car to Chicago, another track where we felt we could always run better and were really competitive there also.


This sport is all about improving and that addressed a main area for us – that certainly gives all of us confidence moving ahead and it also gives a boost to everyone in the shop who is building these cars.  A ton of work goes into putting these cars together so my thanks go to all the guys back at JGR who are putting in long hours to build the new cars and I know they take a lot of pride in seeing them perform well on the track.  We’ve unloaded new cars a lot lately and we’ve been really happy with the performance.”


How do you go about finding the grooves at Michigan when you are on the track?
“You just think about what you’re going to need to pass.  You arc into the corners and make sure you can get off.  You think about the things that you struggled with in races past and you work on that in practice.  Even if you don’t have that problem necessarily during practice you think about, ‘Well, in the race it got that way’ so we need to prepare for that.  That’s how we go about the process of making our car better.”