Denny Hamlin 2010 Fantasy NASCAR Preview

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=denny+hamlin&iid=7811174″ src=”6/b/d/b/Daytona_500_Practice_1cc3.jpg?adImageId=9955096&imageId=7811174″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]Denny Hamlin

2009 Stats: Points Finish 5th, 4 Wins, 15 Top Fives, 20 Top Tens, Average Finish 13.2, Average Position 11.5, Laps Led 1380, Driver Rating 102.4

In 2009 Denny Hamlin won a career high 4 races. He matched his career win total in one year. Hamlin won at Pocono, Richmond, Martinsville, and Homestead. My Denny Hamlin rule of thumb has always been, “If its flat or short pick Hamlin”. His Homestead victory was the first of his career on an intermediate track.

This year in the NASCAR community many are quick to profess Denny Hamlin as Jimmie Johnson’s biggest challenger. Besides stats and other things intangibles come into play. I’ll tell you right now Denny Hamlin and the 11 team are not clutch performers. Before Brian Vickers managed to finish 700 points back from the eventual champion Denny Hamlin owned that record. He’s a great flat track, short track, and road course driver but by no means will Jimmie Johnson be losing any sleep over Hamlin.

Strengths- As I said earlier, “If its flat or short pick Hamlin”.

Weaknesses- He’s simply not as good as the other guys on the intermediate tracks.

Intermediate Track Grade- B+, Yes Hamlin won the season finale at Homestead but that normally isn’t a typical race. Guys are on different agenda’s in that race. Since I’m being a whistle blower here about Hamlin on the intermediate tracks here’s his career averages……

Atlanta- 15.3, California- 16.9, Charlotte- 18.6, Chicago- 19.0, Darlington- 8.0, Dover- 25.1, Homestead- 10.6, Kansas- 19.0, Las Vegas- 11.0, Michigan- 13.2, Texas- 10.6 (Red represents a Chase race)

People could say that he ran good at these tracks in 2009 and I wouldn’t deny it. Yes I even know he blew up while he was running good.The thing here is that Hamlin will blow up on you, he’ll crash on you, and his pit crew will make mistakes. To me this sounds like the perfect storm.

Flat Track Grade- A, See I don’t hate Denny Hamlin. In the Cup series Hamlin could potentially be the best driver on the flat tracks. He’s capable of winning at any of them. Pocono is his best flat track and he has nearly half his career victories there.

Restrictor Plate Track Grade- B, Almost everything I said about Hamlin on the intermediate tracks can be said here. He’s had fast cars at both tracks . At Talladega he’s really well known for the spectacular two car break aways that the 11 car consistently does at the track. He normally starts off each race good, but then he disappears.

Short Track Grade- A+, On flat tracks Hamlin is almost always my default pick. Last year for the Onpitrow.com expert picks I picked him 4 out of the 6 short tracks and it worked out pretty good for me (see season long results).

Road Course Track Grade- A, Hamlin’s a very proficient road course driver. In 4 career starts at Watkins Glen he’s never finished outside the top 10. At Infineon he has a 13.5 average finish.

How to use Denny Hamlin from a fantasy racing perspective in 2010?

“If its flat or short pick Hamlin”, to me this is all that you really need know. There will always be a better safer intermediate track pick then Hamlin.

Click HERE for more Denny Hamlin stats

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