Denny Hamlin said he shrugged off the disappointment of narrowly missing his best shot of winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup title last year.
“After the awards banquet I was done with it pretty much. You had to relive it through media for the two weeks after the season. As soon as I was done with Vegas and was able to shut the TV off and stuff, it was just focus on this year,” Hamlin said at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour.
Now there’s just one fixed idea.
“It’s always championship or bust,” explained Hamlin. “But, for me, if I don’t win the championship then I’ve took a step back because I finished second in points. If I finish third, how am I going to consider that a successful year? I just took a step back from where I was last year. And, you see over the last four years we’ve jumped three spots in the points every year over these last four years or so.
“For me, there’s only one more spot to move up and I’m going to go into this year with a whole lot more knowledge of what I need to do and what I need to work on from this point forward.”
Narrowly missing his first Cup title in 2010, the 30-year old Hamlin had to put behind the angst of being so close that elusive title.
Other than winning the championship he bounced back from inter-season knee surgery amass total of eight Sprint Cup wins.
So it’s on to Daytona full-speed ahead.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough. That’s for sure. Now it’s 2011. I don’t have to think about 2010. I don’t have to talk about it anymore. We can just move on.”
“After the awards banquet I was done with it pretty much. You had to relive it through media for the two weeks after the season. As soon as I was done with Vegas and was able to shut the TV off and stuff, it was just focus on this year,” Hamlin said at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour.
Now there’s just one fixed idea.
“It’s always championship or bust,” explained Hamlin. “But, for me, if I don’t win the championship then I’ve took a step back because I finished second in points. If I finish third, how am I going to consider that a successful year? I just took a step back from where I was last year. And, you see over the last four years we’ve jumped three spots in the points every year over these last four years or so.
“For me, there’s only one more spot to move up and I’m going to go into this year with a whole lot more knowledge of what I need to do and what I need to work on from this point forward.”
Narrowly missing his first Cup title in 2010, the 30-year old Hamlin had to put behind the angst of being so close that elusive title.
Other than winning the championship he bounced back from inter-season knee surgery amass total of eight Sprint Cup wins.
So it’s on to Daytona full-speed ahead.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough. That’s for sure. Now it’s 2011. I don’t have to think about 2010. I don’t have to talk about it anymore. We can just move on.”