1on1: Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, will make the 100th Sprint Cup Series start of his career this Sunday at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.

Coming off a strong third-place finish in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he and all the competitors had to deal with terrible conditions because of faulty Goodyear tires, Hamlin has good reason to be optimistic. Pocono Raceway has always been one of his favorite tracks. He swept both Sprint Cup races there in 2006, finished third there earlier this year, and in fact has never finished lower than sixth in five career starts.

Q: What do you like so much about Pocono? And why do you think you've been able to be so successful there in the past?

Hamlin: I think a lot of it has to do with just it being a flat track. We've had a lot of success at flat tracks in the past. [Crew chief] Mike [Ford], I think, has a great feel for that racetrack. It seems like ever since the first time I went there, it took about two laps of practice to kind of get it figured out. After that, once you win one race there, you just kind of feel like you know what it takes to win a race there in your car and you have that feel for it. So it's just one of those tracks I've got a great feel for, too.

Q: Everyone talks about how Pocono is so similar to Indy. How so?

Hamlin: I think as far as similarities, it's a high-speed, flat track. They're both two-and-half miles in length, so the corners sweep about the same amount. That's very similar. And it's a high-speed, braking track -- that's another way the two tracks are very similar. You kind of have to have the same speed at the end of the straightaways, into hard braking. That's how they really relate.

Q: Obviously the surface at Pocono is different, though, so we can expect the Goodyear tires to hold up significantly better there than they did last week at Indy, right?

Hamlin: Yeah, the surface is different. Pocono's surface is abrasive just like Indy's is, but it's a different kind. There are rocks and whatnot. Indy, with that diamond grinding, it's almost like razor blades that you're running on. So it's a lot different.

Q: Everyone knew the tires would be a challenge with the new car running for the first time at Indy. But were you just as stunned as everyone else that it ended up being as bad as it was when you got there for practice, and that it never did "rubber in" the way everyone expected it would?

Hamlin: That's one thing for sure. I was amazed that the track didn't rubber up. I've never seen in history a track that wouldn't take rubber the way that one didn't. It was amazing to me the way it all worked out, but I think it was just a live-and-learn type of thing.

Q: So you don't expect any additional tire problems at Pocono?

Hamlin: No, I don't think there will be any problems at Pocono. I think it's going to be relatively the same race we've always had. We've raced that car at Pocono before and had no issues. We hadn't raced that car at Indy before; and I think everyone underestimated how hard these cars are on right-side tires. We see it every week, at every track we go to. The tire wear is more excessive on the right than on the left. But I think at that high-speed, high G-force racetrack, I think everyone underestimated it. (Continued)