Hamlin, FedEx Racing Edged Out – Finish Second at Martinsville

Denny Hamlin and the #11 FedEx Racing team scored a second-consecutive second-place finish last weekend at Martinsville Speedway.  Hamlin led a race-high 296 laps on Sunday afternoon and, after grabbing the lead from Jimmie Johnson on lap 456, appeared prepared to post his first win in a year.  However, two consecutive cautions tightened the field and Johnson worked his way to Hamlin’s bumper as the laps counted down.  On lap 485, Johnson made contact with Hamlin, forcing the #11 FedEx Freight Camry up the track and allowing the #48 Chevrolet to sneak by on the inside.  Hamlin had little recourse but to finish the race in second place.  The result sees Hamlin climb to fifth in the points through six races.

Hamlin, Jason Witten racing for the March of Dimes in Dallas

Before taking to the track in Texas, Denny Hamlin will be joined by Dallas Cowboys star Jason Witten on Wed., April 1 in Dallas to celebrate FedEx’s relationship with the March of Dimes. The event at the Speed Zone Dallas will serve as the presentation of the special #11 FedEx Office/March of Dimes Toyota that will take to the track in Phoenix on April 18th.  

Hamlin at Texas Motor Speedway

This weekend will mark Hamlin's eighth start at Texas Motor Speedway and 122nd career Cup start.  Texas is a track that has been very good to Hamlin and the #11 FedEx team since the Chesterfield (Va.) native was introduced as the full-time driver of the #11 car in Nov. of 2005.   In only his fifth career Cup start, he piloted the #11 FedEx Chevy to a seventh-place finish.  Hamlin has continued to perform well since, recording a fourth-place finish in the spring race last season, and posting a tenth-place finish in the 2006 edition of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.  Despite going a lap down in the spring 2007 event at TMS, Hamlin and team rallied back for a ninth-place finish.  In the fall of 2007, Hamlin led 45 laps and battled for the lead with Matt Kenseth late in the race before making contact with the outside wall.  Damage to the #11 forced Hamlin to the garage for repair and he would ultimately finish 29th - a result that didn't do justice to the strength of the car or the effort by the team that day.  In the spring of 2008 Hamlin posted a fifth-place finish at Texas, scoring his fourth top-ten finish track, and then scored a 17th-place finish in the fall after fighting handling issue throughout the race.

Texas Motor Speedway Chassis – JGR 232 & 204

The #11 FedEx team will unload JGR 232 this weekend at Texas for it’s first-ever start.  JGR 204 will serve as the backup this weekend.  This car posted a third-place finish in Atlanta in the fall of 2008.

FedEx Ground – Great Lakes Region “Along for the Ride” in Texas

In recognition of their commitment to superior customer service, FedEx Ground’s Great Plains Region “GPLS” will be featured on the wing caps of the #11 FedEx Ground Toyota this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.  

Hamlin Conversation – Texas Motor Speedway

Back to back second-place finishes have this #11 team pointed in the right direction – can you carry over that performance to Texas?

“To go out and run well at Bristol and Martinsville certainly gives us some confidence moving forward but we want to get to the point where running up front is the norm for this FedEx team and it’s a bigger story when we don’t.  We’ve led laps and challenged for wins now and that’s exactly what we need to do – and what we expect to do on a regular basis.  This FedEx team is working hard to raise our performance everywhere and it’s paying off – we just need to keep this momentum up.  Texas is a different animal for sure, we’re off the short tracks and back on an intermediate now and we’ll have to go out and show that we can run these tracks too.  This is a track that I like a lot and a place we’ve run well before.  We know how much we’ve improved on these 1.5-mile tracks and we had a really good race going at Atlanta until the end.  It’s about finding that intermediate performance on a consistent basis now.”

Is it hard to put Martinsville out of your mind and focus on the next race?

“You really can’t dwell on last week.  I hate that we didn’t win but I feel like we ran a great race.  What happened at the end was just really typical short track racing.  I knew he (Jimmie) was coming and I would have done the same thing if the tables had been turned.  Like I said, racing with Jimmie, Jeff and Tony all afternoon was awesome and I think we gave the fans a lot to cheer about.  I wanted that win badly last week, this whole team did, but I think we’ll get another shot at it and hopefully that shot comes back at Martinsville this fall.”