October 27, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Hamlin hopes to keep momentum rolling at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Denny Hamlin’s love affair with Martinsville Speedway is the gift that keeps on giving.

Since Joe Gibbs Racing discovered the driver’s prowess on the half-mile paperclip-shaped track, his services have been offered to fellow teammates over his 15 seasons with the club.

And while Hamlin has joked about reluctantly giving away his secrets, he acknowledges that the information highway is reciprocal.

“The worse thing to ever happen to me is me, Kyle (Busch) and Joey (Logano) came here and they gave us the same racecar, they changed our inserts and they told us to go run 40 laps each,” Hamlin said. “They analyzed all of our data and I killed them in a 40-lap run and then they studied and they got better and they beat me. That was the worse thing that ever happened to me was when Gibbs got that test going.

“It was probably Joey’s second season at Gibbs, but I remember kind of just watching them. I remember it like a book. Kyle smoked me for the first five laps and then was not good on the end. I just kind of had a good balance of all of it. They went to work and they got good at it. Kyle really stepped up at Richmond as well, not too long after, but it goes both ways. I’ve gotten so much better at tracks like Charlotte and Dover and all that because of Kyle.

“That’s what teammates are for is to feed off of your weaknesses and that’s what we’ve done.”

On Sunday, Hamlin will start on the pole for the First Data 500. The last time the No. 11 Fed Ex Toyota won from the pole here was in 2010. With his fourth-career pole at Martinsville, Hamlin leads all current drivers. Only Jimmie  Johnson, who has eight more starts at the track, has more wins, top fives and top 10s.

Coming off of his win last weekend at Kansas Speedway and his history at Martinsville, Hamlin feels quite confident about his chances.

“All signs indicate yes if you were looking in a Magic 8-Ball right now,” Hamlin said. “Our car was good in practice. It was good in qualifying obviously. That’s all we have to go by.

“I know that we’ve definitely spent a lot of time and emphasis on working on a setup for this race track. Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) has definitely wanted to spend more time on working on a setup on a race track that I’m particularly good at. You try to win at the places that you’re extremely good at and I think that the hard work and effort that they’ve done working on all that stuff is paying off right now.”

No rest for the weary

Kyle Larson has survived spins, flips and crashes without a scratch until earlier this month at Talladega Superspeedway.

The driver of the No. 42 Chevy was running 14th when Alex Bowman blocked Logano and triggered an 11-car wreck in Stage 2. Larson slammed into the Bowman car then Jimmie Johnson slid up into the No. 42 Chevy.

Larson ended up in the garage and fractured his rib in the process.

“I got cleared to race, it’s just going to be a little bit painful at times,” Larson said. “I think because we were already in the banking when I hit him, there was a lot of vertical load that tried to push me down out of my seat. Something put me in a weird position and I hurt my ribs. We’ve been working on my seat belts and things like that. You always think you’re tight enough in your seat until something happens, then you realize you could do a bit better on your own safety stuff. Just working on keeping it comfortable in there as well keeping it as safe as can be.”

“I’ve never been diagnosed with a concussion. I’ve never had any other broken bones. I’ve never had to race through any pain, injury or anything. I guess in a way it’s a fun challenge, but I wish I didn’t have to do it in the Playoffs.”

Larson, who qualified for the Round of 8 for the first time in his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup career, is currently seventh in the standings. He rolls off 14th in the First Data 500. In 11 Martinsville starts, Larson’s best result was third in 2016.

Given Martinsville’s reputation as a demolition derby and the driver's ribs feeling a bit tender, the Chip Ganassi Racing team took additional precautions to secure Larson’s cockpit for Sunday.

“It still hurts but they modified my seat quite a bit this week,” Larson said. “I feel actually pretty good in the car this week because of the g-forces—they really don’t have any here. So my ribs feel fine in there. Maybe at Texas they’ll feel a little worse. It’s just something I’m going to have to deal with the rest of the season. It stinks, but we’ll get through it.

“I did get x-rays. My lower rib is fractured. It’s just something I’m going to have to deal with.  We worked with our inserts and seat belts to try and make it a little more comfy for me.”