Hamlin has to keep an eye on his engine

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C.

When Denny Hamlin’s engine failed at Charlotte Motor Speedway last October, it effectively ended his title chances.

A year later, he’s in the thick of the championship race and engine issues can’t be too far from his mind headed into tonight’s race.

Kyle Busch, his teammate with Joe Gibbs Racing, had an engine failure last week at California that ended his title hopes. And Hamlin learned his Joe Gibbs Racing engine was on the brink of quitting after his eighth-place finish.

“That was only a 400-mile event and I know we had engine issues at Gibbs, and myself, our engine was hurt after the race,” he said. “We were not far from blowing up ourselves. There’s always issues out there that you’ve got to be aware of. This race is 100 miles longer. You still have that in the back of your mind, but I think any track, it could happen at.”

Hamlin has gone from the points leader two races ago to second, 36 points behind Jimmie Johnson with Saturday night marking the halfway point of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Even though Hamlin doesn’t have the finishes to show for how well he’s run at times at Charlotte, he thinks he’s got a good shot of making up ground on Johnson. From there it’s on to Martinsville, where Hamlin is a three-time winner. He’s also got wins at Texas and Homestead, two of the final three venues in the Chase.

“We include Charlotte in it as well as a track we feel like we can win,” Hamlin said. “These [next three] are three really good race tracks for us, even though the statistics might not show it. I’m looking forward to it.

“After that, we have Texas, we have three race tracks that we’ve won at in these last six races or so. I’m pretty confident that we should be looking good here soon.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had one of the lowest moments of his career last year at Charlotte, qualifying 38th and saying he was at the “end of my rope” about his miserable season.

He laughed when reminded of that following his eighth-place qualifying run Friday.

“It’s a roller coaster every week in this sport, for teams like us, anyways,” he said.

“Everybody in the garage has the same intentions, but not everybody has the same results,” he said.