Denny Hamlin, from Chesterfield, Virginia, grew up in the shadows of Richmond International Raceway, so of course he wants to win this weekend.
Of course he wants to make his hometown fans hoot and holler. And, sure, it’d be nice to celebrate in a place where everyone knows your name, a hero returning home to steal a victory. It’d be storybook-type stuff.
But, quickly, “want” is morphing into “need.”
Perilously close to running out of time, Hamlin needs to win, or else face the real possibility of missing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup just one year after a career-best runner-up finish in the final points standings.
Though not dire just yet, soon it will be. Hamlin is 50 points outside the top 10, a hefty sum when each in-race position is now just a single point.
So he may need to rely on one of the two new Wild Card Chase spots. After race No. 26 at Richmond, the top 10 drivers in the points standings will earn Chase berths. Spots 11 and 12 will go to the drivers with the most wins, provided they are in the top 20.
Richmond, this Saturday night, statistically looks like as good a spot as any for win No. 1 for Hamlin in 2011.
Consider some of these stats…
• Hamlin has won two of the last three races at Richmond.
• He leads the series in pre-race Driver Rating at Richmond with a 119.8.
• In 10 starts, he has scored a Driver Rating over 100.0 eight times, including a rare perfect Driver Rating of 150.0 in the fall race of 2009.
• Even his blowup races are spectacular. He led 381 of the 410-lap event in May of 2008, but tire problems plummeted his finish to 24th.
• In four of the last six races, he has led over 100 laps.
| 
|