Denny Hamlin has been staying within striking distance of Jimmie Johnson for the first five races of the NASCAR Chase, conservatively.
Now he says he’s ready to make an aggressive move for the lead as the NASCAR Chase heads into the paper clip-shaped Martinsville short track. He admits that, until now, he hasn’t been taking any unnecessary chances. “I wanted to be, what I've been calling conservative is being conservative on restarts and not putting myself in bad positions as far as that is concerned. I've pushed myself every lap, don't get me wrong. It's just you minimize yourself on restarts by not putting yourself in bad positions. That's what I mean by being conservative. And I feel like it's cost me a few points at the end of these races.” As Hamlin has won three out-of-five of the last races at what he considers a home track he’s fired up by the prospect of taking off the gloves. And Johnson has won five out of the last eight, but his most recent victory was in March 2009. The Virginia native is very confident that this race is his to lose. “I'm not nervous at all going into Martinsville. For me, I would be more nervous if I was the 48 car (Johnson) going into Martinsville than I would if I was myself because we won the last two races there. He didn't have the spring race he was hoping for. We are going out there to be on the offense. He's going to try to go out there and win the race as well. But for me, he's going to have to beat us to do it. I feel like we're going to be strong when we get there. It's going to take a lot to beat us there.” The team has prepared a “new generation” car as ammunition. While some pundits are already putting it down to a two-man battle between him and Johnson; Hamlin says Kevin Harvick, driving for Richard Childress Racing, is still a threat. “Well, people would think so, and I would think so. I'd think that he'd be one of the guys that I would have to beat. But really, honestly, the Childress cars were probably one of the best cars in the spring other than us." "I knew the 48, they said they were experimenting with some stuff in the spring, which I don't doubt that at all, so I'm sure they'll be back up towards the front like they usually are at that track." "I feel like if it is mano-a-mano, we've been in a lot of green and white checkers where we've been on the front row together, so it should be interesting,” Hamlin added. Yes, if it comes down to a green-white-chequered finish, it should be very interesting.
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