O Denny Boy

I intended to post this yesterday. Somehow, singing the praises of a young driver isn't as impressive after he goes out and nets the pole position in his sixth Cup start. But I'll sing his praises anyway.

Denny Hamlin is a 24-year old driver out of Chesterfield, Virginia. I first took note of him when he was hired last year out of the Virginia/North Carolina late model circuit as a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. For the most part, I've always liked the Gibbs drivers. Love Tony Stewart. Love Bobby Labonte. I think J.J. Yeley is talented and will have a good career. Heck, I even rooted for Jason Leffler in both of his go-rounds in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment. So when Denny was hired, I paid attention.

Denny impressed at JGR as soon as he joined them. To get his feet wet, they fielded him in a handful of ARCA, Truck and Busch Series starts. He finished in the top ten in his first start in each of those series. At the end of 2004, Gibbs parted ways with driver Mike Bliss, who was driving the #20 Rockwell Automation Chevy. Bliss is one Gibbs hire I didn't like. Never cared for him. Needless to say, I wasn't upset to see Bliss replaced in the #20 Rockwell car by one Denny Hamlin.

Denny's had an interesting season in the Busch Series. He hasn't won, and hasn't even contended for too many victories, but for an inexperienced driver, he's been incredibly consistent, and has rarely crashed. I attended the Busch race at Loudon, NH, in July, and Denny almost pulled off the win. He led most of the second-half of that event before settling for third place. He was extremely fast at Talladega (my favorite track) in April, but was wrecked while racing at the front of the pack. I probably told my friend Nancy five or six times, "Man, Denny could've won that race!"

On September 24, I pulled into the parking lot at Dover Speedway, wearing a #20 Rockwell Automation Racing T-shirt. Denny was sixth in Busch Series points. During driver introductions for the Dover 200, I cheered for Denny, but hardly anyone else did. He didn't get any boos. It's just that no one knew who he was. Look at his standing in the Busch Series Most Popular Driver voting. Despite his top-ten standing in Busch points, Denny's clean racing on the track and quiet personality had kept him out of the limelight.

Denny finished 6th in that Dover race, and since then has entrenched himself in 5th place in the Busch standings. Gibbs thought highly enough of him to promote Denny to the Cup series, replacing the recently fired Jason Leffler in the #11 FedEx Chevy for seven of the season's final 10 races. In the spotlight of the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Denny has engineered a drastic turnaround for a car that struggled all year. He's finished in the top ten in three of his five starts in the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing machine. It's been good enough for Gibbs to hire him for the #11 long-term.

Yesterday, Denny won the pole for this afternoon's Cup race in Phoenix. He's anonymous no more. I'm thrilled for this young Virginia driver. Before the season began, Dale Jr. told a reporter to keep an eye on that Denny Hamlin kid. I guess Junior knows talent. Congratulations Denny, and go win the race!