Denny Hamlin said he needs to change to become a more successful racer. His actions, attitude and approach are areas he’s altering heading into the NASCAR season.
“What I don’t like to hear is, ‘You’ve got a lot of potential,’” the 28-year-old driver for Joe Gibbs Racing said. ” It’s my fourth year. It’s time to be a champion. Not a guy that contends.”
Conviction backs his words. He said his workout routine has changed, and he’s refocused inside and outside the car.
Still, for all that Hamlin has accomplished - a third-place finish in the points his rookie year and four Sprint Cup victories - his actions have stunted his progress at times.
Hamlin will need to do more, though, to succeed, starting with tonight’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway - an event he won in 2006.
“I can assure you that I’m more focused than I’ve ever been on the racing aspect of it,” he said. ” A lot of people say that, but I work my guts out in the gym to try and be better. Every time I think I’m working hard, I always picture someone else who’s working a little bit harder than I am so I push myself a little bit more.”
“I expect more from myself than that,” Hamlin said of his first three years. “I’ve been successful at so many different levels. ... When you win one out of every four or five races or something like that, you wonder, ‘Why can’t that happen in the Cup Series?’ What I don’t like to hear is: ‘You’ve got a lot of potential.’
Earnhardt, who befriended Hamlin years ago and invited the up-and-coming driver to Daytona as his guest in 2004 when he won the 500, believes Hamlin is too hard on himself.
And while many believe Hamlin made foolish, immature decisions that distracted him the past several years, Earnhardt said Hamlin has nothing to regret.
“The damn kid was running a late model, what, three or four years ago? Here he is with a great team, good job, making money, living in a nice house. Basically he has the world in the palm of his hand,” Earnhardt said. “Everybody makes personal mistakes and learns a little bit about being more mature, what to say and don’t say. He is just too critical of himself. He is real hard on himself. He puts a lot of pressure on himself to compete at a certain level. He feels like he should be there every week.
“I know he wants more. That is the sign of a true racer and he will get it.”
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